Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Big Water
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://andreacurtis.ca/
CITY: Toronto
STATE:
COUNTRY: Canada
NATIONALITY: Canadian
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:McGill University, graduated.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and editor. Toronto Life, Canada, editor; This Magazine, Canada, editor-in-chief; Word-Play: Writing in the City, Toronto, Canada, program director.
AWARDS:Canadian National Magazine Awards (six, three shared); International Regional Magazine Awards (three); Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction, for Into the Blue; Food Writing Award, Taste Canada, and Award of Merit, Heritage Toronto Awards, for The Stop.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Chatelaine, Globe & Mail, Canadian Geographic, Cottage Life, Utne Reader, Toronto Life, Explore, This, Today’s Parent, and National Post.
SIDELIGHTS
Andrea Curtis is a Canadian writer and editor, who is based in Toronto. She holds a degree from McGill University. Curtis has served as the editor of the publication, Toronto Life and the editor-in-chief of This Magazine. She has also worked as the program director for a nonprofit organization called Word-Play: Writing in the City. Curtis has won multiple Canadian National Magazine Awards and International Regional Magazine Awards. Her work has appeared in publications, including Chatelaine, Globe & Mail, Canadian Geographic, Cottage Life, Utne Reader, Toronto Life, Explore, This, Today’s Parent, and National Post.
Into the Blue and What's for Lunch?
In 2003, Curtis released her first book, Into the Blue: Family Secrets and the Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck. The volume tells the story of Curtis’s relatives, the Crawford family. James Crawford lived during the early-1900s in Wiarton, Ontario and captained a steamship called the J.H. Jones. In 1906, James was ferrying thirty passengers on Georgian Bay, when a strong storm hit. He and all the passengers were killed. Eleanor, his daughter, was an infant when the incident occurred. The book explains how it affected her life. Writing on the Quill & Quire website, Kate Sellar commented: “Curtis manages to navigate her way around the kind of sentimentality that characterizes so many family memoirs. The process of discovery and research is very much inscribed in the book itself.”
In What’s for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World, Curtis discusses the great differences in school lunches across the globe. From schools in refugee camps in Somalia to schools in Japan and France, the book includes diverse perspectives on food served to kids. In Mexico, children return home in the middle of the day to eat with their families. In Japan, students learn etiquette lessons during their meals. In France, much time and care goes into the preparation of school lunches. In South America, kids eat products grown locally. However, the United States and Canada serve processed meals with lower nutritional value and little care. The volume includes photographs by Yvonne Duivenvoorden. Joanna K. Fabicon, reviewer in School Library Journal, noted that What’s for Lunch? featured “many points of discussion about cultural differences, poverty, [and] nutrition.” “Adults may have to force-feed this purposive book to those not yet committed to the important causes outlined here,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews critic.
The Stop and Eat This!
Curtis collaborated with Nick Saul to write The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement. In the volume, they explain how Saul turned a Toronto food bank into an innovative Community Food Centre. Writing in Maclean’s, Pamela Cuthbert suggested: “Amid a glut of food manifestos and local-food edicts, this title stands out as an important contribution to the discussion around food and social justice.” Ryan B. Patrick, contributor to This Magazine, noted that the volume featured “bright anecdotes and a well-paced creative non-fiction narrative.” “While the tone can be a bit preachy at times, overall, this is an uplifting and exciting book,” commented Laura Krier in Xpress Reviews.
Eat This! How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (And How To Fight Back), released in 2018, is a companion book to What’s for Lunch?. It explains how large food companies use marketing tricks to appeal to children. Angela Leeper, reviewer in Booklist, described Eat This! as “eye-catching and informative.” “Copious kid-friendly information on a vitally important topic, stylishly presented, makes this book essential,” asserted a Kirkus Reviews critic. A contributor to Children’s Bookwatch remarked: “Eat This! is described as a tool kit to fight fast-food marketing to kids. As such it has plenty of empowerment value and appeal for young readers and others.” Writing in School Library Journal, Kathleen Isaacs commented: “With appealing design and timely, research-based information, this will be a welcome addition.”
Big Water
Curtis’s 2018 novel Big Water, is based on the historical event of the sinking of the SS Asia. In an interview with a contributor to the Orca Book blog, Curtis explained that she came upon the story of the SS Asia during her research process for Into the Blue. She consciously decided not to read too much about the incident, so as to allow herself more creative freedom with the story. Curtis told the contributor: “I didn’t want to be trapped by the urge to show all the fascinating facts I’d uncovered! I very much wanted the novel to be set in the past but feel universal.” The narrative follows Christine Mc Burney, a grieving teen, as she sets sail on the SS Asia. She and a boy named Daniel are the only passengers who survive a brutal storm that pummels the ship. In the same interview, Curtis also stated: “I hope Big Water encourages conversations about the role of history in contemporary life. I hope readers will ask questions about the changing roles and expectations for women and girls, and the representation of Indigenous people in historical records. I also hope readers find that Big Water convinces them historical writing can be as fascinating and exciting as contemporary stories.”
Writing in Booklist, Molly Horan suggested: “Curtis’ novel will make an exciting read for any historical-fiction fan.” Zachary Chauvin, reviewer in Resource Links, commented: “Curtis has managed to engage the complex subject matters of mortality and grief in a surprisingly accessible and appropriate manner for young readers.” Chauvin added: “Big Water is an excellent read for young readers.” A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked: “The historical events are limned with enough realism to sustain interest even if Christina never springs fully to life.” “This novel adeptly combines historical fiction with a heavy dose of adventure and even some romance,” asserted Meaghan Nichols in School Library Journal. Ruth Latta, contributor to the CM website, stated: “Curtis’ choice of the present tense brings immediacy, allowing readers to feel that they are going through the ordeal hand in hand with Christina. Presenting the story through Christina’s stream-of-consciousness brings the story ‘up close and personal’ and allows readers to share Christina’s thoughts, fears and memories as they occur to her.” Latta added: “The author has created an interesting backstory for Daniel.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2018, Molly Horan, review of Big Water, p. 56; April 15, 2018, Angela Leeper, review of Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back), p. 40.
Children’s Bookwatch, February, 2018, review of Eat This!.
Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2012, review of What’s for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World; January 15, 2018, review of Big Water; March 1, 2018, review of Eat This!.
Maclean’s, March 25, 2013, Pamela Cuthbert, review of The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement, p. 71.
Reference & Research Book News, December, 2013, review of The Stop.
Resource Links, February, 2018, Zachary Chauvin, review of Big Water, p. 28.
School Library Journal, January, 2013, Joanna K. Fabicon, review of What’s for Lunch?, p. 91; March, 2018. Meaghan Nichols, review of Big Water, p. 115; March, 2018, Kathleen Isaacs, review of Eat This!, p. 143.
Science and Children, summer, 2015, Judy Kraus, review of What’s for Lunch?, p. 92.
Science Scope, September, 2015, Judy Kraus, review of What’s for Lunch?, p. 92.
Skipping Stones, November-December, 2012, review of What’s for Lunch?, p. 33.
This, July-August, 2013, Ryan B. Patrick, review of The Stop, p. 41.
Xpress Reviews, November 8, 2013, Laura Krier, review of The Stop.
ONLINE
Andrea Curtis website, http://andreacurtis.ca/ (May 29, 2018).
CM, https://www.umanitoba.ca/ (December 15, 2017), Ruth Latta, review of Big Water.
Orca Book blog, http://blog.orcabook.com/ (April 10, 2018), author interview.
Quill & Quire, https://quillandquire.com/ (February 1, 2003), Kate Sellar, review of Into the Blue.
About Andrea
Andrea Curtis is an award-winning writer and editor.
Her latest adult book, The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement, written with Nick Saul, is a bestseller and a winner of the Taste Canada Food Writing Award. It also won an Award of Merit at the Heritage Toronto Awards, and was nominated for the Toronto Book Award and the OLA Evergreen Award. Her first book, the critically acclaimed creative nonfiction work Into the Blue: Family Secrets and the Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck (Random House) won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
Andrea also writes for young people. Her YA novel, Big Water, has recently been published by Orca Books. The followup to her bestselling kids’ nonfiction What’s for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World is also just out from Red Deer Press. It’s called Eat This! How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and how to fight back).
Her writing has appeared in Toronto Life, Cottage Life, Chatelaine, Canadian Geographic, Explore, This Magazine, Utne Reader, The Globe & Mail, The National Post and Today’s Parent, among other publications.
Andrea has written about everything from women’s health to neighbourhood change, from personalities in the literary world to those in the urban forest. Her writing has won six Canadian National Magazine Awards plus three that she shared with others. She has also won three International Regional Magazine Awards.
Before beginning to freelance full-time, Andrea was an editor at Toronto Life, Shift and editor-in-chief of This magazine, one of Canada’s oldest progressive magazines about politics and culture.
She is currently Program Director for Word-Play: Writing in the City, a nonprofit community-based creative writing workshop based out of TYPE books in Toronto. She teaches a weekly after-school program for Grade 6 students in the neighbourhood. She also volunteers with the Word-Play board.
Andrea grew up in Barrie, Ontario. She’s a graduate of McGill University where she studied history. She lives in Toronto with her family.
QUOTED: "I didn’t want to be trapped by the urge to show all the fascinating facts I’d uncovered! I very much wanted the novel to be set in the past but feel universal."
"I hope Big Water encourages conversations about the role of history in contemporary life. I hope readers will ask questions about the changing roles and expectations for women and girls, and the representation of Indigenous people in historical records. I also hope readers find that Big Water convinces them historical writing can be as fascinating and exciting as contemporary stories."
Author Feature: Andrea Curtis
April 10, 2018 No Comments
9781459815711
Big Water: Seventeen-year-old Christina McBurney, grieving the loss of her twin brother, Jonathan, to consumption, runs away from her Parkdale home and secures passage on the SS Asia, on its way to Sault Ste. Marie. But when the overloaded and top-heavy steamship sinks in a violent storm, Christina must figure out a way to work together with the only other survivor, a brooding young man with a likely criminal past.
What planning and research did you do for you book?
My first book was adult creative nonfiction called Into the Blue about another shipwreck on Georgian Bay. That boat also sank in a fall storm. The captain and owner was my great grandfather, and in the book I explored the toll that disaster took on my family and their small community. I did years of research for it and thought I’d never again write about shipwrecks. But the story of the Asia—which I’d read about in my research— stuck with me. I continued to read more about the wreck when I decided to write this novel, but I stopped myself from going into much more depth because I didn’t want to be trapped by the urge to show all the fascinating facts I’d uncovered! I very much wanted the novel to be set in the past but feel universal.
What is your ideal writing environment?
I am a creature of habit. I find it hard to focus away from my home office with a big south-facing bay window. There are few distractions (unless my family is home!) and I can readily go where I need to go in my imagination. But I have also worked at my family’s Georgian Bay cottage. There, I set up with a laptop on a card table facing the bay watching the wind stir the water into whitecaps, waves beating the shore. While it’s infinitely more distracting, it is a glorious perch from which to write.
9781459815711
How do you decide on names for your characters?
The characters in my book are based on real people, but I have imagined complete back stories for them and put words into their mouths that they likely never spoke. As a result, I felt it was unfair to keep the names of the actual teenage shipwreck survivors: Duncan and Christy Ann. The names also sounded a bit olde tyme-y and I wanted the story to appeal to contemporary teenagers, so I changed them to something plausibly historical but less fraught: Daniel and Christina.
Do you ever get writer’s block? What do you do to overcome it?
I have never had an extended period of writer’s block but there are many days when I feel as if I am going nowhere with my writing. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that these fallow periods are normal, that just like a field that goes uncultivated for a season, there is much going on below the surface. I tend to emerge from these times humbled but also energized with new creativity and desire to write.
What was the last novel you read? Why did you choose it? What did you think of it?
I’ve been reading a lot of YA fiction lately, partly because I am writing it and partly because I like to be able to recommend books to the Grade 6 kids I teach in my weekly creative writing workshop. I recently finished John Green’s latest, Turtles All the Way Down, Lynda Mulally Hunt’s Fish in a Tree and Auggie and Me: Three Wonder Stories by RJ Palacio. I enjoyed them all, conscious always of the ways that adults writing YA imagine (and sometimes misjudge) their teenage readers’ interests and enthusiasms.
Do you remember your dreams? Do they ever become inspiration for your writing?
I rarely remember my dreams but most of my fiction begins from a single startling dream-like image—a train barrelling down the tracks about to hit a massive elephant; the front page of a newspaper with a close-up image of three faces, two boys and a baby squished between them. These images seem to appear in my mind when I least expect it. It might be during yoga or in the shower or out for a run. These images are powerful and overwhelming. They feel like a gift and they become my guiding idea through the writing process.
In an alternate universe, what would your dream career be?
I sometimes think in an alternative universe I would have studied medicine and become a doctor. I come from a long line of medical people who worked long hours in demanding positions and it didn’t look very appealing to me. Yet, I maintain a strong interest in medicine and health and well-being. I wonder what it would be like to be a doctor working in an emergency department or maybe in a field hospital with Doctors Without Borders.
What types of conversations do you hope will come out of your book?
I hope Big Water encourages conversations about the role of history in contemporary life. I hope readers will ask questions about the changing roles and expectations for women and girls, and the representation of Indigenous people in historical records. I also hope readers find that Big Water convinces them historical writing can be as fascinating and exciting as contemporary stories.
Big Water is available now!
Curtis, Andrea 4-25-17 Andrea Curtis is the award-winning writer of several books for young people and adults, including Into the Blue, about her great-grandfather, a steamboat captain who disappeared on Georgian Bay in the early twentieth century. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Andrea lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and their two sons. For more information, visit www.andreacurtis.ca.
QUOTED: "eye-catching and informative."
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Print Marked Items
Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets
You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back)
Angela Leeper
Booklist.
114.16 (Apr. 15, 2018): p40.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back).
By Andrea Curtis. Illus. by Peggy Collins.
May 2018. 40p. Red Deer, paper, $16.95 (9780889955325). 613.2. Gr. 4-8.
With mouth-watering delights--pizza, a doughnut, a hamburger, and sugary cereal--on the cover, this book
knows all the tricks of marketing fast food to kids, and it's ready to share them. But first, what is marketing?
The author briefly explains this advertising concept and the importance of being media-literate. In doublepage
spreads that follow, a page of conversational text describes such marketing concepts as product
placement, fast food advergames, friendvertising on social media, fast food mascots, and staged photos,
while the facing page offers several related examples from around the world. For example, in just one year,
fast food restaurants placed six billion ads on Facebook. Interspersed are spotlights on initiatives to crack
down on kidvertising, like a British collaboration of parents and nonprofits that aims to make grocery store
checkout lanes junk food-free. Cartoonlike artwork of diverse children and color photos with more
marketing examples make this slim guide eye-catching and informative. A concluding section offers
practical tips to make readers more media savvy and their meals even healthier--and happier.--Angela
Leeper
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Leeper, Angela. "Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and How to Fight Back)."
Booklist, 15 Apr. 2018, p. 40. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537268130/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=4d1006cf.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537268130
QUOTED: "Copious kid-friendly information on a vitally important topic, stylishly presented, makes this book essential."
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Curtis, Andrea: EAT THIS!
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Curtis, Andrea EAT THIS! Red Deer Press (Children's Informational) $16.95 5, 1 ISBN: 978-0-88995-532-
5
A comprehensive compilation of fast-food marketing practices aimed at youth and ways kids can recognize
and combat them.
In this slim, 15-chapter book, Curtis begins with the basics, clearly explaining what marketing is: "the art
and science of persuasion." The author's upbeat, nonpatronizing tone is a selling point in itself as she
explains how fast-food marketers place product brands in entertainment culture--movies, TV shows, and
video games--to persuade kids to identify with or become loyal to a type of junk food; how they infiltrate
schools by creating fundraisers and teaching resources that feature their product; and how they create kidfriendly
spokescharacters such as Ronald McDonald, among many other manipulative practices. The good
news is that the book's target audience--kids--will feel empowered as they learn how they are being
influenced and are educated in ways to fight back. Segments labeled "Do This!" suggest ways readers can
participate in anti-fast-food advocacy and tell stories of real-life kids and parents who exposed junk-food
marketing practices. Facts about the unhealthy results of eating fast food based on statistics from countries
around the world are included as well as information on what real food is. Collins' snappy designs depict
youth of many ethnicities and share space with clear, well-chosen stock photographs.
Copious kid-friendly information on a vitally important topic, stylishly presented, makes this book
essential. Knowledge is power. (sources, glossary, author interview) (Nonfiction. 9-14)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Curtis, Andrea: EAT THIS!" Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959904/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d29cf3ed.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959904
QUOTED: "Curtis' novel will make an exciting read for any historical-fiction fan."
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Big Water
Molly Horan
Booklist.
114.11 (Feb. 1, 2018): p56.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Big Water. By Andrea Curtis. Mar. 2018.192p. Orca, paper, $14.95 (9781459815711); e-book
(9781459815735). Gr. 7-10.
Christina McBurney is still reeling from her twin brother's death when she boards the SS Asia's fateful 1882
voyage. Sure her presence and the weight of her grief are only burdens on her parents, she's determined not
just to run away but to disappear. But when disaster strikes and she finds herself as one of only two
survivors battling the elements and the freezing water, all she can hope for is to not disappear beneath the
sound. This story offers an interesting look at a piece of history and a compelling disaster narrative. The
author taps into feelings not just of terror but determination and self-reflection, as Christina fights for her
life in an increasingly grim lifeboat. A partnership with her fellow survivor helps move the plot along, and a
mystery around his life adds some intriguing historical context, though the introduction of romance seems a
little forced. That quibble aside, Curtis' novel will make an exciting read for any historical-fiction fan.--
Molly Horan
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Horan, Molly. "Big Water." Booklist, 1 Feb. 2018, p. 56. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A527771936/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=76594cf3.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A527771936
QUOTED: "Eat This! is described as a tool kit to fight fast-food marketing to kids. As such it has plenty of empowerment value and appeal for young readers and others."
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Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets
You to Buy Junk (and how to fight back)
Children's Bookwatch.
(Feb. 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
Full Text:
Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and how to fight back)
Andrea Curtis, author
Peggy Collins, illustrator
Red Deer Press
195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario, L3R 4T8, Canada
9780889955325 $16.95 pbk www.reddeerpress.com
"Eat This!" is aimed towards a youth audience of children age 9-14 in grades 4-8. "Eat This!" is an effective
analysis of varied marketing tactics to persuade younger consumers to eat non-nutritious or junk food, with
specific suggestions for ways to avoid being overly influenced by media publicity tactics in food choices,
and ways to request or encourage food providers to offer a wider range of healthy choices of foods targeted
towards kids. A couple of highlighted topic chapters titled Do This! offer specific examples, such as 9 year
old Hannah Robertson's talk with McDonald's' executive that questioned the use of toys, mascots, and
marketing techniques used to trick kids into eating and wanting unhealthy foods. Although the executive
made counterclaims, McDonald's' began to offer more healthy food choices for kids, and media concluded
that Hannah was responsible for beginning a meaningful dialogue between kids and fast food marketing.
She actually said, "Don't you want ids to be healthy so they can live a long and happy life?... It would be
nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time." The conclusion is that
kids can be a powerful force for change in the arena of fast food marketing. the final "Do This!" pages offer
these among other suggestions: Celebrate diversity. Do price checks and taste tests. Lobby for litterless
lunches. Advocate for fast food marketing-free zones. Question media. Watch product placement. Use viral
video tactics to spur eating healthy foods. Read nutrition labels. Assess food based fundraisers, including
the nutritional value of the foods. Watch fast food mascot use, think critically about this. Consider the Retire
Ronald campaign and create similar efforts. "Eat This!" is described as a tool kit to fight fast-food
marketing to kids. As such it has plenty of empowerment value and appeal for young readers and others. It
could be easily incorporated into any math, sociology, or marketing class.
Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Eat This! How Fast-Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (and how to fight back)." Children's
Bookwatch, Feb. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530965339/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bf73e047. Accessed 17 May 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A530965339
QUOTED: "Curtis has managed to engage the complex subject matters of mortality and grief in a surprisingly accessible and appropriate manner for young readers."
"Big Water is an excellent read for young readers."
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CURTIS, Andrea: Big Water
Zachary Chauvin
Resource Links.
23.3 (Feb. 2018): p28.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Resource Links
http://www.atcl.ca
Full Text:
[E]
CURTIS, Andrea
Big Water
Orca Book Publishers, 2018. 181 p. Gr.
9-12. 978-1-459815711. Pbk. $14.95.
On September 14, 1882 a large passenger boat called the SS Asia sank, resulting in the loss of 123 lives.
Out of that massive tragedy came a story about two unlikely survivors, a young girl and boy who were
picked up days after the sinking. In her book, Big Water, Andrea Curtis has re-created that event and cast
the two young survivors as the main characters who must come to terms with the grim reality that has
befallen them and learn to work together in order to survive.
This bond forged by the two main characters is underwritten by the death and despair that surround their
predicament. Injured and near death themselves, they are isolated and cold, struggling to stay alive while
the passengers around them die off quickly in massive numbers. Christina, as the young girl and main
character, undergoes an existential crisis, whereby the recent death of her twin brother becomes a point of
reference where she questions why she was supposedly chosen to live or find the will to fight on. Curtis
handles this internal crisis very well, and we are provided a character who thinks and acts in virtuous terms
despite the harsh circumstances. Momentarily, Christina's thoughts do get expressed in such bleak terms as,
"what kind of god lets someone like my brother die? He was a better person than I will ever be." But it is
through this internal dialogue that she eventually comes to a place where her self-esteem is bolstered by her
perseverance, expressing that, "The others from the Asia are gone, but Daniel and / survived. We are
survivors." Her strength therefore becomes a journey in itself, and we get a good example of positive
character development.
Curtis has managed to engage the complex subject matters of mortality and grief in a surprisingly accessible
and appropriate manner for young readers. Her philosophical observations on the topic manage to provoke
thought and lend themselves well to the profundity of the historical event and the fictional representation.
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Curtis also throws in allusions to the poems Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kublai Khan by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, again demonstrating the intelligence behind this book, and its homage to romanticism and
human virtue. Big Water is an excellent read for young readers and adults alike.
Thematic Links: 19th Century; SS Asia; Great Lakes; North America; Maritime History
Zachary Chauvin
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Chauvin, Zachary. "CURTIS, Andrea: Big Water." Resource Links, Feb. 2018, p. 28. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530467609/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e2f96fdf.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530467609
QUOTED: "The historical events are limned with enough realism to sustain interest even if Christina never springs fully to life."
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Curtis, Andrea: BIG WATER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 15, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Curtis, Andrea BIG WATER Orca (Children's Fiction) $14.95 3, 6 ISBN: 978-1-4598-1571-1
While running away from home, Christina ends up on the Asia, a steamship that plies Lake Huron in this
historical novel set in 1882.
An opening note tells readers the Asia sank, killing all onboard but two teens. True to the actual events,
debut novelist Curtis leaves the only two survivors, white teenagers Christina and Daniel, on a lifeboat
drifting far from shore. The gritty pair, hypothermic and starving, must work together to ensure their
survival. The tale is told in Christina's present-tense voice, but, especially during the disaster, Curtis'
authorial overuse of metaphors and similes ("I'm like a fat, frozen spider in my life preserver, scuttling
frantically") diminishes the immediacy of what should be a terrifying situation. Later, when Christina and
Daniel are adrift and her mind wanders, the abundant flowery language is less jarring. Christina had left
home after the death of her twin brother, primarily because she's had trouble expressing her grief. The
frightening events compound her misery, although they also eventually lead her to a better understanding of
her loss, improving her ability to cope. After a couple of days, the pair is rescued by a First Nations couple
who are depicted with respect; there is some additional information about their culture included in an
author's note, which identifies them as "likely Anishinaabeg."
The historical events are limned with enough realism to sustain interest even if Christina never springs fully
to life. (Historical fiction. 11-16)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Curtis, Andrea: BIG WATER." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A522642974/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=99513dd5.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A522642974
QUOTED: "Amid a glut of food manifestos and local-food edicts, this title stands out as an important contribution to the discussion around food and social justice."
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The stop: how the fight for good food
transformed a community and inspired a
movement
Pamela Cuthbert
Maclean's.
126.11 (Mar. 25, 2013): p71.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Rogers Publishing Ltd.
http://www2.macleans.ca/
Full Text:
THE STOP: HOW THE FIGHT FOR GOOD FOOD TRANSFORMED A COMMUNITY AND
INSPIRED A MOVEMENT
Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis
Food banks are a poor solution to hunger. Yet today close to 900,000 Canadians-a record high-rely on them
each month. New measures include capping the number of client visits, underscoring the instability of the
system. It's a problem anti-poverty activist Nick Saul knows all too well. He's the founder of the Stop Food
Community Centre, an organization that began as a food bank in a poor Toronto neighbourhood and
evolved over the past 15 years into a pioneering movement providing good meals alongside long-term
solutions for people in need.
This anecdotal book follows the Stop's imperfect, sometimes wrenching and ultimately inspiring history.
Never preachy, it's full of wisdom, empathy and smart, practical thinking: fundraising for a walk-in fridge to
keep fresh vegetables at their peak is an early initiative. In keeping with the community focus, there are
accounts of those who interact with the Stop. There's a woman named Jane who declares herself "a drain on
the system," others who become members of its small staff and many more who together form a kind of
urban village.
Saul himself is a political animal who engages the rich to support the poor through a two-tiered system that
offers big-ticket fundraising dinners and an organic farmers' market in an upscale neighbourhood while
never losing sight of those who are "disenfranchised by a political system that often doesn't benefit them."
He argues that "food bank systems end up treating food in the same way their corporate partners do: as
strictly a commodity."
Amid a glut of food manifestos and local-food edicts, this title stands out as an important contribution to the
discussion around food and social justice. What's more, its publication comes at a critical time: Saul and his
crew are taking the model on the road with plans to make it a national movement.
----------
Please note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Cuthbert, Pamela. "The stop: how the fight for good food transformed a community and inspired a
movement." Maclean's, 25 Mar. 2013, p. 71. General OneFile,
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Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A323143339
QUOTED: "bright anecdotes and a well-paced creative non-fiction narrative."
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The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food
Transformed a Community and Inspired
a Movement
Ryan B. Patrick
This Magazine.
47.1 (July-August 2013): p41.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Red Maple Foundation
http://www.thismagazine.ca/
Full Text:
THE STOP: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement
by Andrea Curtis and Nick Saul
Random House, $29.95
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Andrea Curtis and Nick Saul's hardcover detailing anti-poverty activist Saul's 14-year experience as
executive director for a Toronto-based "urban" community food bank feels, at first glance, as ff it's simply
preaching to the converted about the value of "good food" and the long-term benefits of re enfranchising
those beneath the poverty line. But The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and
Inspired a Movement transcends pedantic musings towards real world solutions to local hunger--sketched
via bright anecdotes and a well-paced creative non-fiction narrative-to create an actionable argument for
grassroots anti-hunger activism (organic gardens, farmer's markets) as stimulus for national and global
change. The real star of the book is the centre itself: the Stop Food Community Centre and its
neighbourhood members who work to buck the calcified and commoditized food bank system to represent a
true movement for community change, one healthy meal at a time.
Patrick, Ryan B.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Patrick, Ryan B. "The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a
Movement." This Magazine, July-Aug. 2013, p. 41. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A338601408/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2c86b3b3.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A338601408
QUOTED: "This novel adeptly combines historical fiction with a heavy dose of adventure and even some romance."
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CURTIS, Andrea. Big Water
Meaghan Nichols
School Library Journal.
64.3 (Mar. 2018): p115.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
CURTIS, Andrea. Big Water. 181p. Orca. Mar. 2018. pap. $14.95. ISBN 9781459815728.
Gr 9 Up--After her brother's tragic death from tuberculosis, 17-year-old Christine McBurney runs away
from her Parkdale home. Unwilling to be forced into working as a nursemaid or teacher, Christine takes
matters into her own hands when she boards a ship in Owen Sound. While heading to Sault Ste. Marie on
the steamship Asia, a terrible storm causes the boat to sink in Georgian Bay. She and a young man named
Daniel are the only survivors and must endure on the open water and await rescue or find land. The story is
set in 1882, and Curtis provides readers rich details of life in Victorian-era Canada. The characters shed the
social norms and strict manners of their time to survive against impossible odds. Christine faces the
devastating loss of her brother and Daniel comes to terms with his troubled past. Acclaimed for her creative
nonfiction Into the Blue, Curtis mines the storied nautical history of Georgian Bay for this setting. This
novel adeptly combines historical fiction with a heavy dose of adventure and even some romance.
VERDICT A must-buy for where Victorian-era historical fiction or survivor tales are popular.--Meaghan
Nichols, Archaeological Research Associates, Ont.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Nichols, Meaghan. "CURTIS, Andrea. Big Water." School Library Journal, Mar. 2018, p. 115. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529863601/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=6b813e49. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529863601
QUOTED: "With appealing design and timely, research-based information, this will be a welcome addition."
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CURTIS, Andrea. Eat This!: How Fast
Food Marketing Gets You To Buy Junk
(and How You Can Fight Back)
Kathleen Isaacs
School Library Journal.
64.3 (Mar. 2018): p143.
COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
* CURTIS, Andrea. Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You To Buy Junk (and How You Can Fight
Back). illus. by Peggy Collins. 36p. glossary, photos, websites. Red Deer. Mar. 2018. pap. $16.95. ISBN
9780889955325.
Gr 4-7--Marketing targeted at children aims to sell them junk food, but they can fight back. Curtis, the
author of What's for Lunch?, surveys the ways marketers attempt to sell their products to young people
around the world in an information-packed title. Her relatively complex text is topically organized into
spreads, each describing a different marketing strategy through an explanatory paragraph, followed on the
facing page by examples and statistics. Strategies she describes include product placement in films, viral
marketing, school fund-raising campaigns, brand name characters, and straightforward "kidvertising."
Interspersed are chapters describing ways people have fought back. All are profusely illustrated with images
of food and cartoons of young people, mostly eating in groups. Two final chapters, one aimed at students,
parents, and teachers and another suggesting appropriate actions, will leave readers hopeful. VERDICT
With appealing design and timely, research-based information, this will be a welcome addition to most
library collections.--Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Isaacs, Kathleen. "CURTIS, Andrea. Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You To Buy Junk (and How
You Can Fight Back)." School Library Journal, Mar. 2018, p. 143. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529863724/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8b7c4e58.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529863724
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The Stop; how the fight for good food
transformed a community and inspired a
movement
Reference & Research Book News.
28.6 (Dec. 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9781612193496
The Stop; how the fight for good food transformed a community and inspired a movement.
Saul, Nick and Andrea Curtis.
Melville House Publishing
2013
299 pages
$19.95
HV696
Nick Saul was hired by the Stop, a small food bank in Toronto, Canada in 1998. This volume highlights the
changes that turned it into a Community Food Centre that has even been praised by Jamie Oliver, an
international "superchef." Saul and Curtis outline in a rough diary changes that took place over the next 14
years, including a movement toward nutritious food and the incorporation of homeless people as volunteers.
Interspersed are comments on Canadian and even worldwide social conditions, in places as far away as
Tanzania. The volume closes with a "note on sources" that outlines the books and organizations consulted in
its preparation.
([c] Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Stop; how the fight for good food transformed a community and inspired a movement." Reference &
Research Book News, Dec. 2013. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A351466704/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b45c1f0a.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A351466704
QUOTED: "many points of discussion about cultural differences, poverty, [and] nutrition."
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Curtis, Andrea. What's for Lunch?: How
Schoolchildren Eat Around the World
Joanna K. Fabicon
School Library Journal.
59.1 (Jan. 2013): p91.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
CURTIS, Andrea. What's for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World. illus, by Sophie Casson.
40p. glossary. Red Deer. 2012. pap. $12.95. ISBN 9780-889950482-3.
Gr 1-4--From an American cafeteria to a refugee camp in Kenya, there's a consistent format to almost every
spread, which features a meal from a specific city: story/ origin of the lunch on the left, color photograph on
the right. These simple visuals, like the single scoop of lentils served on a sheet of notebook paper in
Lucknow, India, speak volumes. Though not in-depth, the explanations and diagrammed facts surrounding
the pictures can provide many points of discussion about cultural differences, poverty, nutrition, world
hunger, and activism.--Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library
Fabicon, Joanna K.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Fabicon, Joanna K. "Curtis, Andrea. What's for Lunch?: How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World."
School Library Journal, Jan. 2013, p. 91. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A313971043/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7050c7ae.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A313971043
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What's for Lunch?
Judy Kraus
Science and Children.
52.9 (Summer 2015): p92.
COPYRIGHT 2015 National Science Teachers Association
http://www.nsta.org/
Full Text:
What's for Lunch? By Andrea Curtis. $12.95. 40 pp. Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Markham, ON. 2012. ISBN:
9780889954823.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Our global village is reflected in classrooms across the country. Diversity is recognized, customs are
respected, and holidays are celebrated. Food is an integral part of every culture and lunch is the students'
shared experience. In What's for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World, Andrea Curtis takes
the reader on a worldwide journey to explore the variety of meals shared during the school day.
The continental tour begins in Tokyo, Japan, where lunch is more than a meal. Etiquette, respect, and
cleanliness are integral components. The meal itself typically consists of fish, miso soup, rice, a vegetable,
and milk. Nantes, France, encourages a slow-paced meal, savoring the concoctions cooked by trained chefs.
There is an intense appreciation of food, and lunchroom meals are served on ceramic plates accompanied by
silverware. Bread and cheese are often part of the meal, with low-fat meats and vegetables also served.
Lunch in Lucknow, India; Kandahar, Afghanistan; and Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya are sometimes the
reason students come to school. It may be the only meal they eat during the entire day. This is especially
true for girls in many poor regions. Meals in South American countries like Brazil and Peru feature local
specialties ranging from beans and rice to potatoes and maize. In Mexico City, though, convenience foods
have invaded, making sodas and chips popular snacks. Their students' main meal is consumed midafternoon
at home with their family.
In both Canada and the United States, food is often prepackaged or from a can. Healthier choices can be
seen in some lunch boxes brought from home, but convenience rules. Both countries are concerned about
obesity and have adopted requirements for vending-machine items to curb sugar intake. From England, to
Russia, and on to China, additional meals are photographed by Yvonne Duivenvoorden to complement the
text. Each location is carefully identified on a globe and illustrations of traditional attire introduce each
featured country. In closing, the author includes a message to parents, educators, and students about the
power of food. There is a fast-food, disposable mindset that is seeping into the international food system.
Ramifications of lunch choices should be considered for the health of the individual as well as the
environment.
Kraus, Judy
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kraus, Judy. "What's for Lunch?" Science and Children, Summer 2015, p. 92. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A420325132/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cf42c8ef.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
5/17/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A420325132
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What's for Lunch?
Judy Kraus
Science Scope.
39.1 (Sept. 2015): p92+.
COPYRIGHT 2015 National Science Teachers Association
http://www.nsta.org/
Full Text:
What's for Lunch?
By Andrea Curtis. $12.95. 40 pp. Fitzhenry and Whiteside. Markham, ON. 2012. ISBN: 9780889954823.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Our global village is reflected in classrooms across the country. Diversity is recognized, customs are
respected, and holidays are celebrated. Food is an integral part of every culture and lunch is the students'
shared experience. In What's for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World, Andrea Curtis takes
the reader on a worldwide journey to explore the variety of meals shared during the school day.
The continental tour begins in Tokyo, Japan, where lunch is more than a meal. Etiquette, respect, and
cleanliness are integral components. The meal itself typically consists of fish, miso soup, rice, a vegetable,
and milk. Nantes, France, encourages a slow-paced meal, savoring the concoctions cooked by trained chefs.
There is an intense appreciation of food, and lunchroom meals are served on ceramic plates accompanied by
silver ware. Bread and cheese are often part of the meal, with low-fat meats and vegetables also served.
Lunch in Lucknow, India, Kandahar, Afighanistan, and Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya are sometimes the
reason students come to school. It may be the only meal they eat during the entire day. This is especially
true for girls in many poor regions. Meals in South American countries like Brazil and Peru feature local
specialties ranging from beans and rice to potatoes and maize. In Mexico City, though, convenience foods
have invaded, making sodas and chips popular snacks. Their students' main meal is consumed midafternoon
at home with their family.
In both Canada and the United States, food is often prepackaged or from a can. Healthier choices can be
seen in some lunch boxes brought from home, but convenience rules. Both countries are concerned about
obesity and have adopted requirements for vending-machine items to curb sugar intake. From England, to
Russia, and on to China, additional meals are photographed by Yvonne Duivenvoorden to complement the
text. Each location is carefully identified on a globe and illustrations of traditional attire introduce each
featured country. In closing, the author includes a message to parents, educators, and students about the
power of food.
There is a fast-food, disposable mindset that is seeping into the international food system. Ramifications of
lunch choices should be considered for the health of the individual as well as the environment.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
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Kraus, Judy. "What's for Lunch?" Science Scope, Sept. 2015, p. 92+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497178621/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b8ccb0bb.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497178621
QUOTED: "While the tone can be a bit preachy at times, overall, this is an uplifting and exciting book."
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Saul, Nick & Andrea Curtis. The Stop:
How the Fight for Good Food
Transformed a Community and Inspired
a Movement
Laura Krier
Xpress Reviews.
(Nov. 8, 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Saul, Nick & Andrea Curtis. The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and
Inspired a Movement. Melville House. 2013. 320p. index. ISBN 9781612193496. pap. $19.95. HOME
ECON
Saul, an enthusiastic advocate for food policy reform, along with his wife, writer and editor Curtis (Into the
Blue: Family Secrets and the Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck), tells the story of how the Stop, a small
food bank where Saul served as executive director, was transformed into a vibrant community food center,
breathing new life and energy into a downtrodden Toronto neighborhood. (The Stop has since been become
Community Food Centres Canada, serving people across the country, with Saul as CEO and president.)
Here, Saul argues that traditional ways of providing for low-income communities through food banks aren't
sufficient, supporting his argument through his experiences with the Stop, which didn't just simply offer
food to its members but rather gave them opportunities to become advocates for themselves and provided a
welcoming place for everyone in the community. He shows the difference that a more holistic approach, one
that engages those it serves, can make, and his story is infused with his strong belief that it's our moral
responsibility to address poverty and hunger. While the tone can be a bit preachy at times, overall, this is an
uplifting and exciting book about a community that has undergone real change.
Verdict Readers with an interest in poverty, community activism, food policies, and social justice will
appreciate this passionate work.--Laura Krier, Sonoma State Univ., Rohnert Park, CA
Krier, Laura
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Krier, Laura. "Saul, Nick & Andrea Curtis. The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a
Community and Inspired a Movement." Xpress Reviews, 8 Nov. 2013. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A352041095/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d3ad2881.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A352041095
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What's for Lunch? How Schoolchildren
Eat Around the World
Skipping Stones.
24.5 (November-December 2012): p33.
COPYRIGHT 2012 Skipping Stones
Full Text:
What's for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World by Andrea Curtis, photos by Yvonne
Duivenvoorden (Red Deer). Using lively photos, this book takes the reader on a trip around the world,
showing what school lunches look like in different countries. It simultaneously addresses international
problems such as fast-food culture, and gives
examples for how children can change the food systems themselves. All ages. ISBN: 978-0-88995-482-3.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"What's for Lunch? How Schoolchildren Eat Around the World." Skipping Stones, Nov.-Dec. 2012, p. 33.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A308004562/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=23224a24. Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A308004562
QUOTED: "Adults may have to force-feed this purposive book to those not yet committed to the important causes outlined here."
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Curtis, Andrea: WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 1, 2012):
COPYRIGHT 2012 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Curtis, Andrea WHAT'S FOR LUNCH? Red Deer Press (Children's Nonfiction) $12.95 10, 15 ISBN: 978-
0-88995-482-3
"Organic," "sustainable" and "food miles" all appear in the comprehensive glossary of this book, whose
simple title and cover photograph imply a basic approach to the international topic of food. This very
political book, biased toward food equity, explains why certain foods are eaten in certain countries and why
school lunches are important. They fill various needs, from the teaching of courtesy and table manners in
France and Japan to the supply of basic nutrients for Somali children in refugee-camp schools. Efforts to
improve children's eating habits, curb obesity, encourage use of local crops and provide food to students
with limited economic resources are discussed. As the book is from Canada, naturally there are some
references to that country in many of the comparisons. Though published in a seemingly picture-book
format, the text is complex. Most two-page spreads describe school lunchtime in an individual country, with
a cartoonish illustration on the left and a large photograph of a typical meal on the right with numbered
arrows pointing to particular elements. Lengthy captions are keyed to each number. Small globe images in
each spread point out countries, but larger maps and a bibliography would be useful. "The Message to
Parents, Teachers and Students" provides project ideas. Adults may have to force-feed this purposive book
to those not yet committed to the important causes outlined here. (Nonfiction. 9-12)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Curtis, Andrea: WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?" Kirkus Reviews, 1 Oct. 2012. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A303620554/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bc4c4d32.
Accessed 17 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A303620554
QUOTED: "Curtis manages to navigate her way around the kind of sentimentality that characterizes so many family memoirs. The process of discovery and research is very much inscribed in the book itself."
Into the Blue: Family Secrets and the Search for a Great Lakes Shipwreck
by Andrea Curtis
Living at the beginning of the 20th century in what was then considered to be Ontario’s up-and-coming community of Wiarton, James Crawford was a prominent community figure and captain of a local steamship, the J.H. Jones. In the fall, brutal storms on Georgian Bay often proved fatal to fishermen and steamship captains alike. In late November 1906, Crawford’s ship and all its 30 passengers were lost in such a storm. The wreck remains missing to this day.
Speculation arose about Crawford’s judgment on the day of the wreck. Was it greed that motivated him to leave port in such poor weather? Was the ship overloaded? These questions had a tremendous impact on Crawford’s surviving wife and children, who were looked on by some townspeople with the suspicion and contempt that is fuelled by hindsight.
In the first half of Into the Blue, journalist and editor Andrea Curtis investigates the story of the town and the wreck itself, providing well-paced fictionalized re-enactments based on detailed historical research. The more compelling second half follows Curtis’s grandmother Eleanor, one of Crawford’s children who was only a year old at the time of the shipwreck.
Curtis manages to navigate her way around the kind of sentimentality that characterizes so many family memoirs. The process of discovery and research is very much inscribed in the book itself. Curtis takes readers to the offices of Environment Canada to look up century-old weather reports for Georgian Bay to better understand the circumstances of the wreck itself. But as a granddaughter, Curtis thinks to open up her grandmother’s locket, revealing extra pictures behind the glass and clues to parts of Eleanor’s life left out of family stories.
Ultimately the metamemoir is a balancing act, a creation of Curtis’s insatiable curiosity about her family and her desire to avoid the kind of “conflicting demands, the muddled self-interest, the pride and censure” associated with airing family secrets. Curtis tries to understand how the wreck of the Jones affected her grandmother’s life, discovering that “like a family story, the tale of the Jones is messy and incomplete. It will never be quite finished.”
Reviewer: Kate Sellar
Publisher: Random House Canada
DETAILS
Price: $34.95
Page Count: 270 pp
Format: Cloth
ISBN: 0-679-31135-1
Issue Date: 2003-2
Categories: Memoir & Biography
QUOTED: "Curtis' choice of the present tense brings immediacy, allowing readers to feel that they are going through the ordeal hand in hand with Christina. Presenting the story through Christina's stream-of-consciousness brings the story 'up close and personal' and allows readers to share Christina's thoughts, fears and memories as they occur to her."
"The author has created an interesting backstory for Daniel."
__ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 15. . . .December 15, 2017
cover
Big Water.
Andrea Curtis.
Victoria, BC: Orca, March, 2018.
181 pp., pbk., pdf & epub., $14.95 (hc.).
ISBN 978-1-4598-1571-1 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-4598-1572-8 (pdf), ISBN 978-1-4598-1573-5 (epub).
Grades 8-12 / Ages 13-17.
Review by Ruth Latta.
*** /4
Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.
excerpt:
...[E]ven though he didn't want to go and there was so much to live for, he'd tried to find a way to exist without despair knowing that he would die soon. He said he'd thought about it and ... found that nothing mattered except other people. Love for other people and their love for him. There wasn't anything else."
...
Deliver us from evil...Is what happens to us evil? Punishment for some transgression, some cruelty? The devil's work. Or is it all just bad luck, a terrible storm, an overloaded boat, bad judgment, bad timing? Surely it's self-centred, self-absorbed to consider ourselves touched by some specific, us-sized evil rather than simply victims of circumstance?
Big Water is based on an historical event, the sinking of the steamship Asia on Georgian Bay in 1882. The only survivors were two teenagers, and Curtis has imagined their story for her novel. She explains that she "tried to remain true to the period and basic outline of the ship's last voyage" but that Christina McBurney and Daniel Thompson, the central characters, have been fictionalized, with changed names, invented backstories and imagined emotions.
Curtis, who writes about food and nutrition, is also something of a specialist in Great Lakes nautical history. Her earlier book, Into the Blue, was the story of her great grandfather, a steamboat captain who disappeared in Georgian Bay. In her Authors' Note, readers learn that the sinking of the Asia made front page headlines. Poems and songs were written about the disaster; two independent investigations were held into the tragedy; and firsthand accounts from the two survivors were published.
In Big Water, 17-year-old Christina is running away from Owen Sound to Sault Ste Marie, a place she visited several years earlier with her parents and twin brother Jonathan. Jonathan had died recently after a long battle with consumption, and his family is devastated. Christina believes that her parents want to be rid of her because the very sight of her face reminds them of their lost son. She's afraid they will send her away to be a nursemaid or rural schoolteacher.
Curtis' choice of the present tense brings immediacy, allowing readers to feel that they are going through the ordeal hand in hand with Christina. Presenting the story through Christina's stream-of-consciousness brings the story "up close and personal" and allows readers to share Christina's thoughts, fears and memories as they occur to her. The author prepares readers for Christina's mental shifts back and forth from her immediate predicament to her memories by having her mention her state of agitation. Since Jonathan's death, she has been reacting inappropriately, including, for instance, laughing when there's no reason to do so. Her flight to Sault Ste Marie, with no notion of how she will live there, shows her traumatized state before the disaster.
When authors choose the present tense, however, they must decide whether or not the resulting story sounds logical and authentic. Diaries are in the present tense and have that "up close and personal" quality, but, for obvious reasons, the diary form is not an option in the case of Christina's ordeal. Yet her moment-to-moment account of developments and her deep philosophical reflections (see beginning quote) give one pause. If she's talking to herself, then she's doing so more coherently than many of us would in such circumstances. It's almost as if she's constantly in communication with someone on a cell phone. The past tense would have been more realistic, if less immediate, and the plot is certainly dramatic and terrifying enough to make readers identify with her and Daniel (her co-survivor) and stay glued to the pages.
The author has created an interesting backstory for Daniel. Early on, Christina overhears him arguing with his uncle who calls him ungrateful. When Daniel threatens to tell the authorities about something that's going on, his uncle says, "You think your hands are clean?" Intrigued that the two survivors gave first hand accounts, I did an internet search to find out more about them. (See https://greyroots.com/story/sinking-steamer-asia and http://www.gendisasters.com/ontario/15522/georgian-bay-on-steamer-asia-disaster-sep-1882).
Christina Ann Morrison, on whom Christina McBurney is based, was actually travelling to visit her sister, and she took the Asia because she'd missed an earlier steamer. Duncan Tinkiss or Tinkus of Manitoulin Island, on whom Daniel is based, was aboard with his uncle and ended up in the same lifeboat as Christy Ann, as she was called. The two survived 18 hours on the open water and two days lost on shore, as Curtis describes.
In this novel, the co-protagonists emerge from their harrowing experience feeling strong, glad to be alive, and ready to face the future. Did the two survivors live long and prosper? While I found no details about Duncan Tinkiss's life after the ordeal, I learned that Christina Ann Morrison (Mrs. Albert Fleming), who had called her experience "a nightmare", died near Owen Sound at age 74. Very likely she would be honoured to appear 135 years after the tragedy as a character in Big Water.
Recommended.
Ruth Latta's young adult historical novel, Grace and the Secret Vault, is available from info@baico.ca and ruthlatta1@gmail.com