The Royal Diaries

The Royal Diaries

by Various Authors

The Royal Diaries are diaries about the lives of famous princesses and queens, such as Cleopatra VII and Elizabeth I, when they were children. These princesses did not write these diaries themselves, but other people wrote them in a way that made the diaries seem real. The authors of The Royal Diaries included things that really happened to these princesses and describe the princesses' troubles and secrets. They also discuss things about their father or mother. An example of this would be King Henry VIII, Princess Elizabeth I's father. It is a very interesting way to learn about these famous princesses and their relatives. The Royal Diaries series showed me that it is not easy to be a princess.

I have only read two of the 18 Royal Diary books (the two listed above), so I can't give a top 10 or five review yet, but I will tell you that I like the Cleopatra VII diary best. I like it more because it is full of adventure, and is a suspenseful, what's-going-to-happen kind of book. Unlike some kinds of books that just jump into things, this book takes a while to get into the interesting part, but the interesting part is well worth the wait.

After the end of the story, these books have a epilogue and pictures, such as a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. These books are most suited for children ages nine to 11.

The Boy and the Buffalo

The Boy and the Buffalo
by Kerry Wood

The Boy and the Buffalo is about a First Nations boy named O-Shees. I got this book when my grandparents came to visit and my Nana gave me a pile of books from when she was a child. The one that interested me most was The Boy and the Buffalo. It is a story based on true events when O-Shees became separated from his tribe and lived with the buffalo for a time. I found out O-Shees, also known as Jim O'Chiese, was a real man who later became chief of his band near Rocky Mountain House, Alta.  The author of the book, however, embellished his story a lot to make it more interesting.

My mom and I did an Internet search about what really happened to Jim O'Chiese ( O-Shees ). We were lead to Virtualmuseum.ca where we found copies of notes written by Henry Stelfox, who knew O'Chiese firsthand. Stelfox also recorded O'Chiese own words about his experience.

According to the notes, O-Shees' tribe was trying to evade the Blackfoot tribe at night and he was travelling with them on a travois. He got off the travois and fell asleep under a bush because he was very tired. The tribe travelled on but his parents didn't notice he was missing until it was too late. A few people who were in there tribe came looking for O-Shees, but they did not succeed in finding him.

When O-Shees woke up, he realized he had been left behind. He was very afraid. On the morning of the third day that he was lost, he awoke to see two old buffalo bulls standing a short distance away from him. They did not bother O-Shees in anyway, they just seemed to be curious about him. As they walked away, they occasionally looked back at him as if inviting him to follow them. He was very frightened and lonely, so he followed them at a distance. While they grazed, O-Shees hunted for birds eggs and young birds to eat, which he found lots of.

In the Boy and the buffalo book, O-Shees is adopted by two buffalo cows that lost their calves. O-Shees survives by drinking their milk. I don't think a wild animal would really try to adopt a boy. Our Jersey cow sure would, but I don't think a buffalo cow would. I think they would either charge or run away.

But even though there were many parts that were made up, I enjoyed this book because I had never read a book about the First Nations people and it helped me to learn about them. I also liked this book because it is written well and is not dull. But I didn't like that the northern lights are called the 'Dead Man's Dance' in the story. It's not a very nice name for such a pretty thing.

The book is worth reading and even my younger siblings enjoyed it when my mom read it aloud to them (I had read it first and told them about it). The real story is also very interesting. You can read copies of Stelfox's notes about O'Chiese here:

http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_memories/pm_v2.php?id=search_record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000290&hs=0&sy=&st=O%27Chiese&ci=&rd=172932#

Labrador on the Lawn

                                                        

Labrador on the Lawn 

by Lucy Daniels

Labrador on the Lawn is the funniest Animal Ark book I have read. For example, the reader experiences stolen snacks blamed on another dog and an otter house destroyed in minutes by an excitable puppy.

This story does not take place in Mandy's (the main character) home in Welford but in Graythwaite, a village in the English Lake District. It is here where Mandy, her family, and James are taking a vacation.This book is called Labrador on the Lawn because when they first arrived, they find a lost and hurt labrador on the lawn of the cottage they are renting. It just so happened the owner of the dog is the owner of the cottage they are renting.

This book is very funny and exiting. It tricked me into thinking that Blackie was the one to blame when the picnic food disappeared. I also enjoyed this book because a number of events ran parallel and intersected the labrador story, such as stories about the otter sanctuary, boat race, injured otter, and more. There is nothing that I don't like in this book, unlike most of the other Animal Ark books, which have some things that I don't like.

The Animal Ark series was created Ben M. Baglio's, and he owns the copyright to most of the texts. I noticed, however, on Labrador on the Lawn's inside cover page that Lucy Daniels is credited as author, but Baglio is credited on the cover. That sent me to search who actually wrote the story. According to Amazon.com, Baglio commissioned various writers, sometimes under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. Readers can find out who actually wrote the story by looking who is given special thanks on the copyright page. Special thanks to Labrador on the Lawn is given to Ingrid Maitland.

My seven-year old brother is just starting to read bigger chapter books and I suggested this one before all other Animal Ark books because it's fun, interesting the whole way through, and I didn't have any objections about it.

I think Labrador on the Lawn is a helpful transition to bigger chapter books for young readers and a good book to gain interest in the series. This book is most suited to children ages seven to 10.

Dear Canada

Dear Canada series
Various authors

Dear Canada is a series of books about girls in different time periods in Canada's history, but they are not all written by one author.

They are written as if that person wrote a diary. The characters are fictional but other authors wrote it as if the main character wrote it. Each book takes place in a time and location in Canada. In all of the books you can read about main character and see real pictures of the time period at the back of the books.

I like the series because it's written in a diary format and it teaches Canadian history in an interesting way. Also, some of the girls featured in the books are from immigrant families and come from different cultures, and I like to learn the foreign words and phrases. I have discovered through the series how multicultural our country is and how these different cultures shape our country today.

As I am home educated, this is a great way to learn Canadian history. The series is meant for children ages 12 and up, but I'm nine and I love it. I started reading them when I was eight, so I think most Canadians girls ages eight and up would enjoy them.

There are 32 Dear Canada books (http://www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada/books/), but I've only read six. Here are the six I've read, ranked from most favorite:



1) Orphan at my Door
The Home Child Diary of  Victoria Cope, Guelph, Ontario,1897 (by Jean Little ).

2) To Stand on my own 
 The Polio Epidemic Diary Of Noreen Robertson, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 1937 (by Barbara Haworth-Attard)

3) Not a Nickel to Spare
The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen, Toronto, Ontario, 1932 (by Perry Nodelman).

4) A Desperate road to Freedom
The Underground Railroad Diary of Julia May Jackson, Virginia to Canada West, 1863-1864 (by Karleen Bradford

5) A Trail of Broken Dreams
The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer, Overland to the Caribou, 1862 (by Barbara Haworth-Attard )

6) A Prairie as Wide as the Sea
The Immigrant Diary of Ivy Weatherall, Milorie, Saskatchewan, 1926 (by Sarah Ellis)

A Sea of Sorrows

A Sea of Sorrows
The Typhus Epidemic Diary of Johanna Leary, 1847
Norah McClintock

A Sea of Sorrows is a Dear Canada book about a Irish immigrant girl who was travelling from Ireland to Canada because of the "Great Hunger," an Irish potato famine from 1845-1851.  About three thousand immigrants left on ships for Canada because of this famine, and many died on ships on the way to Canada.


Johanna Leary is the main character in the story and an example of those who came to Canada with families searching for a better life. Her younger brother Patrick died of Typhus during their voyage, and her mother and father died of the same fever after they arrived in Canada. Johanna became an orphan.

I like this story because it shows how hard it is to be a orphan and how they coped. It also shows what different people thought about the Irish. In this story I stayed up late reading because everything was so sad and I kept reading because I kept hoping for it to get better. And it did, eventually, but not without heartbreak in between.

I don't like what Johanna said about Mrs. Johnson, even if Mrs. Johnson said that the Irish are lazy. I also don't like how Johanna slapped Mrs. Johnson even if Mrs. Johnson slapped her. Slapping back would not be the right thing to do. Turning the other cheek (literally!) would be a better thing to do. But it shows how difficult and emotional time it was.


The author, Norah McClintock, is best known as a young adult mystery novelist, but she did a very good job on this book. In fact, the author's great great grandmother Mary Ellen O'Leary traveled on a ship from Ireland to Canada during the same time period but died some time after she left. It was because of her mother's research that she learned about her ancestors and how they came to Canada. Ms. O'Leary had at least three children, two of which were born Ireland and another was believed to be born in Canada. The author doesn't know much more than that, and said she has still many questions she wants answered.

Maybe she tried to answer some questions by researching and writing this book.

A Sea of Sorrows really is a sea of sorrows. There is just no end to all the sad things happening in this book. But even though it is sad, it is still worth reading, so read it. You will be glad you did.

Not a Nickel to Spare

Not a Nickel to Spare
The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen, 1932
by Perry Nodelman

Not a Nickel to Spare is a Dear Canada book about a Jewish girl named Sally Cohen and her family who lived during the Great Depression. The people and events in this story are fictional, but Perry Nodelman based many of the details on her parent's life in Toronto in the 1930s.

I like this book because it was interesting to find out the meaning of Yiddish word used in the book (it provides a glossary at the back). It was also very funny in places, like when a box of matches fell into the bread dough Sally's mother was making and then they didn't know if it was kosher or not. They ended up taking the dough to the Rabbi, who said it was okay to eat.

I found I could relate to Sally because she loved to read like I do and The Five Little Peppers was her favourite book, and I really enjoyed that book as well. And although we aren't Jewish like the Cohens, my family and I keep the sabbath and scriptural holidays, such as Passover (Pesach), Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hosanna), Day of Atonement (Yom Kipur).

I didn't like how Gert and Sophie both went against their father's wishes and went out with men who were not Jewish. It says in the epilogue that Gert married the man she kept going out with but Sophie married a man her father approved of.

I think people should read this book so they can understand the difficulties Jews faced at that time and what life was like during the Great Depression.

This book would be enjoyed most by someone age 9 and up, but someone of every age would like this book.

Raising a Riot

Raising a Riot
by Alfred Toombs

Raising a Riot is about a father who is caring for his three children while his wife is away from the family. It's a true story written by a former newspaperman who had no idea how tough it would be to take care of a home and children by himself.

I read the Reader's Digest condensed version of this book and enjoyed it because it shows the job mothers do staying at home with their children while their husbands are at work. In Raising a Riot, the roles are reversed. The mother went away on the doctor's orders so the father goes to the family the cottage in Maryland to care for their children -- ages ten, seven, and four. His experiences are funny, even though Mr. Toombs sometimes found it very frustrating.

I was drawn to the story because the title sounded interesting, and it was. The story caught my attention further because it has kids in a home with a stay-at-home parent, and I'm a kid in a home with a stay-at-home parent. My mom stays at home with us, but I think it would be funny to imagine what it would be like if my dad (who is also a newspaperman) stayed at home with us.

I didn't like how his children were demanding, and didn't help with work unless their father made a system (and even with those systems they didn't help for very long).

I think the author wrote this book because it would help husbands understand what their wives are going through. I'm not a wife myself, but it helps me to understand what my mom does.

Now adays a stay-at-home dad is not uncommon, but at the time this book was written (the mid 50s), it would have been unusual. But even though it was written about sixty years ago, I think it can compare to people nowadays, because no matter what time in history, moms are moms, kids are kids, and dads are dads.