Paddle-to-the-Sea (1941)

I wasn’t sure what to think when I started this one. However, a couple of pages in, and I was hooked. Exploring the Great Lakes region with a floating toy was an amazing trip. This is definitely for older kids with the page of text and graphic on each spread. It may take a little convincing to get them to read the book, but it’s an enjoyable read with some great geography learning thrown in.

49 months - I really enjoyed reading this with my daughter. I was expecting it to be about a real person paddling the Great Lakes but this idea is much more creative. A great geography lesson and lots of other learning too. Great vocabulary about nature. It would be fantastic to have a newer version of this book with more vivid colors in the illustrations. The art style is very much Group of Seven-esque. A good story to introduce my little dual citizen to natural connection and resources the two countries share. ( )

I had never read this story before, but I thought that it was a great book! It was fairly long, so it would be an ongoing classroom read instead of taking only one story time, but it tells the adventurous journey of a little wooden canoe carving through the great lakes and out to the ocean. (Historical Fiction)

I found this book the day before Bay Books, an independent bookseller, closed its doors in Concord, California. Perhaps I should say that the book found me. Why would I buy a children's book? It must have been the local book dragon whispering in my ear, for I am grateful for this great find.

The author takes us on a trip that starts in the great northern wastes of Canada, and we follow the carved toy through the wilderness and down in to the Great Lakes of the States. Along the way, we find out what the inside of a sawmill looked like and how Lake Superior resembles a wolf's head. Yes, a wolf's head.

If the kids want to have more read to them, tell them to go to sleep so you can read the book yourself in peace and quiet. It was sad to see yet another local bookstore leave us, but it brought me great happiness with my last purchase.

Book Season = Autumn ( )

Very old book, but a great "adventure" on the Great Lakes. I vaguely remember seeing a movie of it when I was in elementary school (I said it was old!). ( )