Canadian Disasters, third edition, 2006

Canadian Disasters by Scholastic has been in print, in three different versions, for 24 years and I would like to thank all those who helped with writing and editing over the years. This is what the latest edition looks like now --->

This version was published in 2006 and can be ordered from most book-stores.


As usual, I asked students to help me read and edit the stories to find the boring parts. (Their names are listed in the acknowlegements section.)
I'm grateful for their great input.

Now that I have retired from teaching I have more time to write... but I miss the students!

Leaving Fletchville is my first published fiction novel. It came out in 2008. It was nominated for the Red Maple awards by the Ontario Library Association and though it wasn't first, it was one of the top three.

Years ago my mother read me a news story of a girl who secretly moved her brothers and sister away from alcoholic parents and how she worked and provided for them, sent them to school and kept them clean and healthy while she worked. She was only fifteen. The story fascinated me and I thought often about kids who are as responsible as adults every day of their young lives. It happens all around us. I also decided this family needed a male in the care-giver role model because most men are responsible and make excellent parents, despite all the stupid and inept men we see in the media these days...

I had fun writing it. The setting of the town is Brighton, with a few parts of Toronto thrown in, and various schools I taught in. The characters are mostly mixes of people I have taught or worked with over the years.