Wild Cameron Women

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Even adults have irrational fears, and children can be obsessed by them.
Maureen Hull’s witty, reassuring tale, told by a grandmother to her
granddaughter, who is convinced that fierce bears emerge from her
cupboard at night, is a delightfully clever way of calming such fears.

Desperate for sleep, Kate’s mother phones Nana Cameron, who offers
help. Nana arrives a week later with three nightgowns for Kate, all in
the red Cameron tartan, and a tale about the “Wild Cameron Women.”
As Nana tells it, over 200 years ago Scottish clansmen were forbidden to
wear their tartans and were driven from their land. Some sailed to
Canada. One of Kate’s seven great-grandmothers had red hair, blue
eyes, and was very brave. “Like me,” Kate says. To make a short
story shorter, Kate gathers the courage of her ancestors, yells at the
bears in Gaelic, and frightens them away.

Hull is an award-winning poet and short-story writer from Atlantic
Canada. Her interest in writing for children grew out of the years when
she was home-schooling her two daughters up to Grade 6. Wild Cameron
Women is her first picture book.

Judith Christine Mills is a full-time author and illustrator who also
paints and sculpts. Her colorful, dramatic, and fantastic portrayal of
bears suitably terrified by Kate’s shouts and her red-tartan nightgown
are delicious. This is a book for anyone who likes fantasy, humor, fine
storytelling, and great illustrations. Highly recommended.