in Jan Truss’s Jasmin (1982) or Kevin Major’s Hold Fast (1978); or anthropomorphic
animal adventures, as in Sheila Burnford’s The Incredible Journey (1960); awe and
admiration for the natural world (tinged with a healthy respect) and anthropomorphism,
reflected often in the trope of prosopopeia, are characteristic notes. Solid biological,
botanical and geographic knowledge is also a feature of such works, which frequently
have environmental concerns as a hidden agenda. Of course, pathetic fallacy, a very
common device in all children’s literature, shows up in Canadian texts too. In Anne of
Green Gables (1908), Anne Shirley’s state of mind is reflected in the trees and flowers
who are pictured as her supporters and friends who rejoice and thrive when she does,
while in Barbara Smucker’s Underground to Canada (1977) Jullily, even in the midst of
her terrible despair as a slave, sees her future rescue in a gorgeous sunset. When the
natural world is a dominant feature of a Canadian children’s book, it is rarely pictured
as mere background or setting but often has the force of a character interacting with
humans.
Since the late 1970s, many novels have appeared in which teenagers struggle to come
to terms with life crises, particularly familial in origin, and sometimes cultural too.
Whether the book is set on the West Coast, as is Elizabeth Brochmann’s What’s the
Matter, Girl? (1980), or Alberta, as are both Mary-Ellen Lang Collura’s Winners (1984)
and Marilyn Halvorson’s Cowboys Don’t Cry (1984), or Ontario, as are Janet Lunn’s The
Root Cellar and Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (1986), or Newfoundland, as are Kevin Major’s
Hold Fast (1978), Far From Shore (1980), Thirty-six Exposures (1984) and Dear Bruce
Springsteen (1987), alienation, anger, struggle and winning through are depicted against
backdrops of social or familial injustice and conflict. These books are well crafted and
psychologically acute and are likely to last as excellent examples of their type.
Pure fantasy and science fiction are not common in Canadian children’s literature,
(though fantasy in particular tends to crop up across the categories) but existing texts
are often very readable, and at least in the case of Monica Hughes’s eight novels are
among the more important futuristic children’s fiction being written anywhere today.
Hughes’s Beyond the Dark River (1979), The Tomorrow City (1978), Ring-Rise, Ring-Set
(1982), Devil on My Back, (1984) and The Dream Catcher (1986) and the trilogy, The
Keeper of the Isis Light (1980), The Guardian of Isis (1981), and The Isis Pedlar (1982),
are both entertaining and thought-provoking in their concern with moral choices and
humane values.
In fantasy, Monica Hughes’s Sandwriter (1985), Janet Lunn’s The Root Cellar and
Shadow of Hawthorn Bay, Mordecai Richler’s Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang
(1987), Margaret Laurence’s The Olden Days Coat (1979), and Joan Clark’s Wild Man of
the Woods (1985) and The Moons of Madeleine (1987), aimed at a variety of ages, are all
enjoyable. Catherine Anthony Clark’s six fantasies are of historical as well as literary
interest, being the first identifiably Canadian fantasy for children. The Golden Pine Cone
(1950), The Sun Horse (1951), The One-Winged Dragon (1955), The Silver Man (1958),
The Diamond Feather: or, The Door in the Mountain: A Magic Tale for Children (1962) and
The Hunter and the Medicine Man (1966) are quest tales in fantasised Canadian settings,
as are Ruth Nichols’ A Walk Out of the World (1969) and The Marrow of the World (1972)
which are also much concerned with the inner symbolic life and inner knowledge of self.
Fantastical elements appear as subordinate threads in novels that are otherwise
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