Illustrating our pasts

The books presented here have been published for younger readers — or for readers of all ages — and use a variety of approaches to present different topics in Canadian history.

Among them, Sara Cassidy’s Painted Fences uses a present-day walk by a girl and her grandfather to explore the same Victoria neighbourhood at the end of the Second World War, while Heather Camlot’s The Other Side delves into the past to shed light on a mysterious death.

Wade Hemsworth’s folk song “The Log Driver’s Waltz” is illustrated by Jennifer Phelan to produce a picture book, and Karen Autio’s Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon, in which a ponderosa pine tree witnesses generations of human history, is illustrated by Loraine Kemp. In Patrick Watson’s Ahmek, illustrated by Tracy Thomson, a young beaver encounters Tom Thomson and members of the Group of Seven in Algonquin Park.

The Log Driver’s Waltz, by Wade Hemsworth, illustrated by Jennifer Phelan

Painted Fences, by Sara Cassidy, illustrated by Sydney Barnes

Canadarm and Collaboration: How Canada’s Astronauts and Space Robots Explore New Worlds, by Elizabeth Howell

Ahmek, by Patrick Watson, illustrated by Tracy Thomson

Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians: Inspiring Stories of Courage and Achievement, by Lindsay Ruck, illustrated by James Bentley

The Avro Arrow: The Story of the Great Canadian Cold War Interceptor Jet — in Pictures and Documents, by Lawrence Miller

The Other Side, by Heather Camlot

Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon, by Karen Autio, illustrated by Loraine Kemp

The Eleventh Hour, by Jacques Goldstyn

My House is a Lighthouse: Stories of Lighthouses and their Keepers, by Christine Welldon

Little Synagogue on the Prairie: The Building That Went for a Ride … Three Times!, by Jackie Mills

Fort Henry: An Illustrated History, by Stephen Mecredy