NoraSawyer.com

It’s the last week of the semester. So, while I attempt to write two papers in as many days, finish my portfolio, and somehow get ready to go camping this weekend (seriously: what was I thinking?), here’s a poem I like by Dennis Lee, from Nicholas Knock and Other Poems (illustrated by Frank Newfeld, published [...]

Carlo’s Cricket, by Barbara Reid, illustrated by Ann Grifalconi • McGraw-Hill,  1967.
I wasn’t able to find an image of the cover online, so here’s a webcam shot of me, in the cafe in the lower level of the San Francisco Public Library, taking one last stroll through Carlo’s Cricket before I send it through the [...]

The Cremation of Sam McGee, by Robert W. Service, Illustrated by Ted Harrison • Greenwillow Books, 1987.
Somewhere in the depths of my memory, the phrase “the men who moil for gold” was locked away like a bit of ore, or maybe like a ghost ship, sighted on occasion and wondered over by those who noted [...]

Tales of an Empty Cabin, by Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin (Grey Owl). Published by Dodd, Mead & Company, NY, 1936. 323 pages.
One of the first things I did upon going back to school was take advantage of the San Francisco Mechanics’ Institute’s special student membership rates. I love this old, private library in the middle of San Francisco’s [...]

A Man Called Raven, by Richard Van Camp, illustrated by George Littlechild • Children’s Book Press, 1997. 32 Pages.
From the same writing and illustration team that created What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses, A Man Called Raven is a more straightforward story than Horses, following two brothers who encounter a mysterious stranger [...]

The Root Cellar, by Janet Lunn • Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983. 229 pages.
Time is not kind to library books. Their corners and edges get dirty and worn, smudges mysteriously appear on covers and spines and never completely go away.
And then there’s the design of the books themselves. Book covers date so quickly, particularly ones that [...]

Destination Gold, by Julie Lawson • Orca Books, 2000. 210 pages.
As a Californian, I can be a bit myopic about the gold rush. Wasn’t it something grizzled men in overalls did before founding the Mechanics’ Institute, inventing the cable car, and establishing a football team?
But, of course, Canada had one, too. And that’s where 16-year-old [...]

What if…? Amazing Stories, selected by Monica Hughes • Tundra Books, 1998. 199 pages.
I don’t often balk at a book’s cover, but this one gave me pause. With an illustration that probably looked dated when the book was published in the late nineties and a font that screams “I was hip once, you whippersnappers,” the [...]

As Long as the Rivers Flow, by Larry Loyie, with Constance Brissenden, illustrated by Heather D. Holmlund • Douglas & McIntyre. 48 pages.
It’s the summer of 1944, and ten-year-old Lawrence is becoming a young man. He’s learning the old ways of his people, sitting quietly enough to fool a beaver into not seeing him, caring [...]

My One Hundred Adventures, by Polly Horvath • Schwartz & Wade Books, 2008. 272 Pages.
I’ve already waxed poetic on summer homes, and the way that the time breaks free of chronometrical devices and becomes attuned to the more natural rhythms of sunrise, sunset, childhood and adolescence. I think summer houses are liminal places, too, existing on [...]