Toronto Discovered

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

This is a book for people who want to own a book that shows off the best
features of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. The text is divided into
five chapters. The first concentrates on the older downtown core, home
to various political and cultural buildings. Chapter 2 explores upscale
neighborhoods (e.g., Rosedale, Cabbagetown, and the Annex) and the nicer
parts of such mixed-income neighborhoods as Parkdale. The third chapter
profiles such annual Toronto celebrations as the Canadian National
Exhibition and Caribbana. Chapter 4 features Toronto’s finest
educational institutions, including the University of Toronto and the
Royal Ontario Museum. The last chapter takes the reader through the
cycle of Toronto seasons, from sunny days on the shores of Lake Ontario
to tooth-rattling toboggan rides down the snowy sides of the Don Valley.


Fulford sees Toronto through rose-colored glasses. No run-down
neighborhoods, crack houses, or homeless people are to be seen in the
more than 100 gorgeous photographs that support the lyrical prose. Even
minor flaws are turned into positives; for example, one photo caption
reads “In Rosedale, even a little covered bridge manages to achieve a
poetic style”—the bridge is a concrete pedestrian walkway and the
“poetic” style is actually a sturdy frost-fence awning designed to
prevent suicides.

Although charming, informative, and beautifully written, Toronto
Discovered is less a voyage of discovery than it is a guided tour from
an air-conditioned bus hermetically sealed against unwanted intrusion.