All About Famous Canadians from Manitoba

Christine Linge MacDonald is a past director of the Toronto & District
Parent Co-operative Preschool Corporation, a freelance writer, and a
bookseller specializing in children’s literature.

This set of 13 picture books (one for each province and territory) comes
in an easy-access box. Like other sets in The All About Series, which
focus on a range of Canadian subjects from capital cities and animals to
geographical regions and Canadian attractions, the books are designed to
meet the reading needs of both young children and adult language
learners, including ESL students. Covering subjects that recur
throughout most elementary-school curriculum, the authors attract and
keep readers with their informative, predictable text and repetitive
sentence patterns. Within glossy covers the reader encounters clear bold
print, vivid color photographs, nicely drawn maps, a well-constructed
glossary, and a well-labeled index.

Each book profiles six individuals from each province and territory.
While these are by no means in-depth biographies, the two-pages of text
and two large photographs devoted to each person successfully conveys
his or her history. The books feature a wide variety of artists,
athletes, politicians, writers, scientists, and Native leaders, ranging
from the internationally famous (e.g., Wayne Gretzky) to lesser-known
Canadians of accomplishment (e.g., Inuit photographer Peter Pitseolak).

The All About Famous Canadians... volumes, which provide an excellent
model for the writing of biographies, are irresistible to pick up and
hard to put down. Highly recommended.