Saturday, July 14, 2012

May Have Found It?


For quite some time, I have been looking for a good Canadian History "spine" book for Elementary aged students.  I wanted something that was a good "living book", that covered at least most of the time period from discovery to at least the 19th century, would be available to me for free (or very inexpensive), and wouldn't put me to sleep when I tried to read it.   This combination hasn't been easy to find.  The closest I have found so far was "The Story of Canada" by Janet Lunn, which I can borrow from my library.

By the way, I swear the most common name of Canadian History books is "The Story of Canada", followed closely by "Canada's Story".   I have found several by these names.

Well, I think I have found one that fits!  It is called.......  "The Story of Canada".  You just knew it, didn't you.  This one is by E. L. Marsh.  I'm not sure of the date of original printing - it looks like it is around 1912 or so.  The first 2 chapters have been quite engaging, and it is free on Archive.org - it also has been reprinted (a scanning from the looks of it) and is available on amazon - for those that like to hold a paper book in their hands.

Over the next while, I am going to continue to read it, to determine if it is going to be a replacement for the Lunn book... but so far it looks promising.  Of course, it doesn't cover the last 100 years or so...   I also have to admit that I was hoping for something that would be as extensive as the U.S. book "This Country of Ours"... to make figuring out the future plans easier.

I just hope that my kids can get to enjoy Canadian History.  I didn't as a kid, and I think the reasons were brought out well in the book "Who Killed Canadian History?"

2 comments:

  1. Thank's for sharing this! I just skimmed the first few chapters and it does look very good. :) I've been working through many older books as well. Another that looks like it might be of use is "Canada, the empire of the North; being the romantic story of the new dominion's growth from colony to kingdom" by Anges C. Laut
    http://archive.org/details/cu31924074433107

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    1. Thanks for that one... I'll check it out too!

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