Tag Archives: French-Canadian

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome back after the Winter Break! This week we will be reading a couple of books. For K to 1, we will be reading Robert Munsch’s new book Give Me Back My Dad! This story is a result of an online poll that Scholastic held last Fall – students were given 3 different storylines, and the one with the most votes would be the story that Robert Munsch would write. This book contains the winning storyline, and true to Munsch’s writing style, is quite funny!

For grades 2 to 7 students (who visit the library for story-time), we will be reading a traditional French-Canadian folktale, The Flying Canoe, retold by Eric A. Kimmel.

This folktale has many versions, and has been altered since it was first published in the late 1800’s. The original publication had the story taking place on New Year’s Eve instead of Christmas Eve, and the main characters were loggers instead of voyageurs. The sinister element of the story has been toned down to make the story suitable for younger students; in the original story, it is El Diablo who visits the loggers and offers them a ride in the canoe back to their homes for New Year’s Eve. Grades 6 and 7 students will be comparing the original story to this newer version.