CRT children's book and Anniversary of Canadian Railway
 

Maybe I missed it, but a quick search didn't bring it up so I will post about it. Apologies if this has been mentioned. I had a busy summer, and didn't get to read everything although I always check in.

A new children's book with the lyrics of Canadian Railroad Trilogy, and art by Ian Wallace was recently released in Canada and is listed for a December publication in the US. It's a lovely book for your collection (to put alongside Pony Man and I Wish You Good Spaces - smile, please). You can read my review here:

Canadian Railroad Trilogy Children's Book

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Re: CRT children's book
 

it was mentioned in a few threads but only found one in a quick search; http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread...t=trilogy+book
and I have my copy thanks to my friend Bonnie who sent it as a surprise gift last month. it's a lovely book that i hope will be included in Ontario schools to compliment the text book with CRT that is used in lessons about the building of the country and railway..

Re: CRT children's book
 

I got mine a few weeks ago. It is beautiful and did come from Canada. You have nice friends Char. :)

DSR

Re: CRT children's book
 

yeah, the prior thread makes no mention of the book in the Subject line

http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=21795

while not much appeal for me personally with his pastel style, Wallace has some very appealing style in his portfolio and i wish he'd used pretty much any other one of them for the CRT tribute http://www.ian-wallace.com/gallery_theboy.html

i'll keep an eye peeled for it in the public schools

val/char, do you know if Nash be performing CRT at the official reception?

...yeah, they don't get much more generous than our bonnie:)

again, any ideas on what other tunes would lend itself to an illustrated works? big blue? CYC?

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How about "Betty called me in"? That would hold the kids' attention!
DQ

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child book? lol, that might make for a better men's/teen magazine!

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http://www.ian-wallace.com/projects.html

Jory Nash? I was in touch with him yesterday and he didn't say anything...

Re: CRT children's book
 

you know what, Jory's own epic tune about the gold rush would make for a cool historical booklet also one day...i guess he could play that but that would be stealing a bit of CRT thunder at the event unless he intros it and being inspired by Gord's writing of CRT (which i believe it was)...we shall see (and hopefully hear on CBC2)

Re: CRT children's book
 

i was chatting with the guys putting up the large original pastels tonight and the consensus is that they are quite striking and vibrant at that size (as is usually the case)...they spoke as if they expected GL to be there...GL's in closeby Buffalo the next day

Re: CRT children's book
 

I am seriously contemplating heading down there...then the next night i'm shuffling off to buffalo too..
;)

will you be down for the event that night James?

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bringing this to the top...no, i don't think so but i did get to see a videocast (iphone?) of the paintings in their full pastel glory...you will have to give us the live eye and say hi to jory from the gang here

hey, one thing i liked taste wise (unlike the art style) with that book was the 'spike' inset on the cover...i always take off the protective covers off any hardcovers i have, old or new....it's embossed right into the cover with no writing at all, i love that

btw, the name of the previously published kid's book (about the history of the CPR project) i was trying to recall is credited also...nice, a bit steep for a kids book

Re: CRT children's book
 

The kids book of canada's railway & how the cpr was built - book title - 2000.

the spike detail is nice. i have a railway spike-not sure fromwhere tho..been silver coated.

Hope to get artists signature and then on friday night i'll get gordon to sign it too..

unless he does decide to come to the reception on thursday...

can't wait...

Re: CRT children's book
 

all sounds great. char!

hey, this is a terrific download for all to browse:

http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/nr/cprinterne...enshistory.pdf

hey, i like the cover of this book you mention

Re: CRT children's book
 

Gord visited the exhibit yesterday (Tuesday, 9/28), so that may mean he won't be at the reception. But, you never know ...

http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/2svfia.jpg

Re: CRT children's book
 

you never know...!
I'll go to see the artwork, meet the artist and hear Jory sing CRT..
if Gord wants to join us he's more than welcome!
lol

Re: CRT children's book
 

thx for the pics, nice to see the Frum display in background... http://twitpic.com/photos/kimfox

maybe Jory should etch all those the words onto top of his guitar, lol

Re: CRT children's book
 

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/T...id=8F1hgreRefU

see artwork and listen to reading - http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/features/crt/

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more pics

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from CBC regarding the interview at the art exhibit -

"The interview will be posted by the latest tomorrow afternoon on the CBC Radio 2 blog -- but we will be showing it tonight at the reception! "

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/ - picture at link...

Re: CRT children's book
 

It was a wonderful event! Gordon did not show up by the time I left around 6:40..he did have a lovely video message for the artist tho. Jory sang CRT and it was fabulous.
My camera played tricks with me so there may not be any video to show..I'm looking into it..I am tres p.o'd!
I met the artist, a very nice man who gave a very heartwrming, emotional speech. I got the book autographed by him and Jory and will get Gordon to sign it tomorrow night in Buffalo.
CBC Radio 2 will have audio tomorrow I believe. (they played the interview and the b&w CBC produced video from 67 of Lightfoot performing the tune with the navvies working around him. It was about 10 minutes long I think!)
There were "Last Spike" cocktails and wine and trays of finger foods..it was all quite nice!
Aengus Finnan showed up! Lovely to see him again!
My fave piece was of the train billowing smoke into the shape of Canada.
Check out Radio 2 on Friday for audio - I'm not sure what they will have online from the event..
I'll be shuffling off to Buffalo early in the morn but will check in before I leave...

Re: CRT children's book
 

sounds wonderful, char! bet Jory was happy to have your support as usual:)

i don't see any 'blog' link at cbc2....have fun tonight and if you are taking the $1.99 megabus, maybe you should ride down low where they keep the baggage!

Re: CRT children's book
 

I'm on the megabus now..just on the qew heading west near square one...using lisa's new tiny netbook..
Jory likess to see me cuz i bring him candy..and fries yesterday...
lol
should be in buffalo at 3/3:15....
i think it's radio2 blog...

Re: CRT children's book
 

wee bit of audio - more to come later..
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/features/crt/

Re: CRT children's book
 

I would love to get a copy of this book now to read to my kids. Anybody know of a good Canadian supplier that will ship to the States? Thanks!

Re: CRT children's book
 

try: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/...9535-item.html

Re: CRT children's book
 

Thanks Charlene!

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i couldnt find anything related to audio in the link...the slide show? the audio clip? canada live? podcasts? where do i go?

btw, the display has been dismantled...nice 3-some keepsake you have there, char!

Re: CRT children's book
 

I'm waiting for an aswer to that exact query from anansi books and cbc radio 2 people..

Re: CRT children's book
 

I'm waiting for an aswer to that exact query from anansi books and cbc radio 2 people..
holiday weekend so I'll probably hear next week..

Re: CRT children's book
 

Re: CRT children's book
 

the boy in the picture: The Last Spike - Canadian Pacific Railway

The Craigellachie Kid and the last spike
NEIL REYNOLDS |From Monday's Globe and Mail

Boys used to quit school honourably – either to find work as apprentices and learn a profession by doing it, or to seek adventure, fortune and fame. Remarkably, these boys often achieved notable things. Kingston author Ray Argyle tells the compelling story of one such lad in The Boy in the Picture:

The Craigellachie Kid and the Driving of the Last Spike. This is the story of Edward Mallandaine, the boy who stood behind CPR financier Donald Smith as the great man drove in the last spike – on Nov. 7, 1885 – of the legendary railway that joined Canada from coast to coast.

The night before the historic occasion, Edward – determined to be a part of history – caught a ride on a flatbed to Craigellachie, a settlement in the B.C. hinterland. It snowed hard, then turned to sleet. Through the pitch-black night, “Edward was stiff and half-frozen,” as Mr. Argyle describes it. He finally found shelter, near the site of the ceremony, in a boxcar. When the ceremonial moment arrived early the next morning, he squeezed his way, chilled and wet, through the throng of assembled dignitaries.

“Can I get in?” he asked, moving closer to the action.

“Whadda yuh doin’ here?” someone shouted. “Get away, kid.”

“Let him in,” one of the railway managers shouted. “Don’t you know that’s the Craigellachie Kid?”

Moments later, Edward Mallandaine made history.

Pierre Berton was the first historian to tell Edward’s story (The Last Spike: The Great Railway 1881-1885), but Mr. Argyle knew Edward Mallandaine. “I had the privilege of knowing Edward when he was a very old man and I was a very young boy,” Mr. Argyle says in introducing this inspiring tale. His family rented a house from Mallandaine in Creston, B.C., a mountain town that Mallandaine helped to found. Mallandaine collected the rent each month – and entertained young Argyle with stories of his life-and-death adventures as a pony-riding postman on a wild frontier.

“When Edward died,” Mr. Argyle says, “I was close to the age he had been at Craigellachie.” Edward quit school to go fight for Queen Victoria during Louis Riel’s North-West Rebellion – but, alas, got there too late. He was 18 when Smith drove in the last spike. Mr. Argyle celebrates the young Edward as an iconic figure himself – another boy with a burning ambition to share “in the building of a boisterous, confident country.”

Edward Mallandaine was born in Victoria on June 1, 1867 – one month before Confederation. He devoured Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published when he was 9 – and his conduct confirmed it. His teacher at Victoria Central School, a certain Mr. Pleace, regarded him as a delinquent and called him “fleabag.”

“Eddie, you bag of fleas, quit squirming,” Pleace shouted one day. “You will never set the harbour on fire.”

Along with his younger brother, Edward “set the harbour on fire” the very next day – almost burning down the James Bay Bridge. He reported his achievement to his teacher: “I did set the harbour on fire – really and truly I did.” He took pride in his flogging – “the best I ever had.” He shared a certain zest with Tom Sawyer – and with Twain himself. (Twain quit school at 11 for a full-time job as a printer’s apprentice – a decision he later justified by noting that libraries have more books than schools do.)

In 1889, the 22-year-old Edward struck out on his own – staking a 180-acre site overlooking Kootenay Lake where he helped established Creston, married the town’s first teacher and lived happily ever after. He died in 1949 at 82.

Mr. Argyle tells this Boy’s Own tale superbly. But then he lived a Tom Sawyer life himself, quitting school at 16 and roaming the country. He ended up in Toronto with careers in newspapers and advertising. (He sold his own company, Argyle Communications, to Environics in 2001). Now, at 81, he’s a prolific author. The Boy in the Picture is his third book in two years. “It proves you’re never too young to have a dream,” he says, “or too old to fulfill it.”

PICTURE: the three closest behind Donald Smith are W.C.Van Horne (Cornelius Van Horne-Lightfoot mentions him when relating his research for the song), engineer Sir Sandford Fleming and Edward Mallandaine.

Re: CRT children's book
 

Char,
This photo of Gord appears on another page of the 'National Post' article you linked to above. Good shot of Gord that others may not find so I uploaded it here.

Re: CRT children's book
 

it's on page one of this thread..
;)
lol

Re: CRT children's book
 

I got my copy of the book in the mail today and it is really well done. I took it to work and took an expected ribbing from my staff. They wanted to know if it was written by that guy whose picture I have hanging in my office... YES, it was written by him. (The picture is only a 5x7 and I am in it with him...) My oldest staff member is 23, so i guess they can be forgiven for their ignorance, maybe. The reason I am adding to this post is while I was reading everyone's comments about the book, CRT started playing on my computer. It took me a second to realize I was listening to the song about which I was reading! random thought, but there it is!

Re: CRT children's book
 

good for you Lisa!
enjoy!

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funny stuff...keep them comin...this place can get quiet when GL on tour breaks

Re: CRT children's book
 

I received my copy from Canada, and have been reading it to my kids as part of the bedtime routine. They already love trains, so it has been hit. My 6 y/o was named after gord, so it has been special for him to get introduced to CRT.

Re: CRT children's book
 

tomorrow, Nov.7 is the 125th anniversary of the Last Spike driven on the CPR line joining eastern and western Canada in Craigellachie, British Columbia.
pics of William Cornelius Van Horne's personal rail car@
http://www.montrealgazette.com/busin...531/story.html

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR/west.htm - story and pics

Re: CRT children's book
 

http://www.revelstokecurrent.com/201...craigellachie/

pics of event and choir of students singing CRT. video to come.

125th Anniversary of the 'uniting' of Canada (Last Spike of the CPR)
 

at 9:25 I took a small drink up to the tracks that run through here (this section completed in 1880), did a quick toast and started singing CRT...but totally stumbled on the second verse and decided to hum the rest as I walked back to the house with head hung in shame)

neat bits of ceremony shown on video link, you can hear local school kids singing a bit of CRT, accompanied by a native Indian filmmaker on guitar

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories...-party-101107/

lots of media equipment there for the event but i was impressed to see no teleprompter (ie. those kids didn't require any lyrics crutch:))


love the old maroon rail cars out west...the ones around here have lots of graffiti (trust me, it's not the lyrics to CRT!)

Cheers, CPR, Donald, Willie, Gord...thank you, navvies:)

ps) a fun download here http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/nr/cprinterne...enshistory.pdf