Legends in Their Time: Young Heroes and Victims of Canada.

A common refrain about Canadian history is that it is boring and uneventful. But George Sherwood begs to differ. In Legends in Their Time: Young Heroes and Victims of Canada Sherwood presents the stories of 18 young Canadians and the unfortunate “baby derby” of the 1930s. All of the entrants were young Canadians who, in their own ways, played prominent roles in our country’s past. Sherwood states that his intention is to present the stories of a diverse group of Canadians and, in this aspect, he succeeds. Included in the collection are the stories of Domagaya and Taignoagny, two Iroquois boys who were kidnapped by Jacques Cartier after his first visit to the “New World,” Anna Swan, a giantess from Nova Scotia, Toy Jin “Jean” Wong, the first Chinese-Canadian woman to be inducted into the Order of Canada, and even Wayne Gretzky.

Sherwood uses the terms hero and victim loosely. These loose definitions allow Sherwood a certain laxity in who he includes in the collection, as certain entries focus more on larger themes Sherwood wants to highlight and not on the individuals in the stories. For example, the chapter on the baby derby is focused more on the hoopla surrounding the derby and pays almost no attention to its “victims”—the children born in an effort to win $500,000.

Sherwood clearly enjoys his subject matter. He has taught history for more than 30 years to high-school and university students. But the audience for Legends in Their Time is unclear. The original artworks that accompany each story invoke a children’s story book, as does the tone of some of the stories. If the intended audience is the students Sherwood sees as he teaches, then perhaps he has missed his mark. If, however, the audience is a bit younger, say late elementary or middle school/junior high students, then Sherwood has provided a well-researched and compelling collection of stories from Canada’s past. Sherwood honours his heroes and victims and has written a book that will hopefully dispel the notion that Canadian history is boring.