"Canadian Celebrations Series":
Boxing Day by Jennifer Howse,
Christmas; Easter; Labour Day; Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day; Thanksgiving Day by Jessica Morrison,
Mother's Day by Laura Pratt,
Father's Day by Blaine Wiseman,
Weigl Educational Publishers, 2011.

Rating: E*

These titles are part of the Canadian Celebrations Series of thirteen non fiction books that highlight several holidays and celebrations with a Canadian focus. Each book in the series has a user friendly layout starting with a table of contents; then moving into text supported by whole page, strikingly beautiful photo illustrations, followed by a photo glossary and index to complete the topic. The text pages contain a heading and information about one aspect of the holiday or celebration being featured and each page is numbered using a graphic that relates to the book topic.

Various authors have crafted these books using easily understood language which provide the reader, (teacher or student), with facts that promote discussion and elude to further research on the topic if so chosen. Throughout the books, the authors have bolded words that can be found in a photo glossary at the back of the book; a great text feature, especially for a young audience. The photos that are found on every second page are particularly vivid and capture the readers interest - definitely a very attractive feature of the series.

This series of non fiction resources is a wonderful gift to any primary or elementary teacher doing a focus study on Canadian celebrations. Every book provides opportunity for teaching young students about the purpose of text features in non fiction text, as well as assisting in the development of comprehension skills in the area of Canadian celebrations. The font is easy to read and fits well with the genre.

Overall, I found these books to be a fantastic resource, durable for student use and covering topics of interest for many grade levels!

Carrie MacMillan
Vol. 16, number 3
February 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.