Classic Books for Boys

5 new book reviews!

2011-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge was recently reviewed for Homeschool Horizons, a brand-new Canadian magazine. Five homeschooling families took the time to read the book over the summer, and their reviews are posted on the Homeschool Horizons website. Here is an excerpt from a review by Heidi Shaw:

"Ian Wilson’s first foray into novel writing is a fun adventure with lots of twists and turns. Written primarily for the late elementary through middle school aged student, my kids found it entertaining and interesting, as did I. Without giving away too many surprises, I can tell you that if your and your children have any interest in Canadian locales, the fun situations 12 year olds can get themselves into, trains, mysteries, etc etc etc. you will find something to enjoy in this book. Young Angus Wolfe loves to explore, loves history and loves his family. His is a good, wholesome character, well rounded and developed (and home educated!), and the story as a whole reads well. The characters Angus and his brother meet are interesting and made me want to find out more of their history as we read."

You can read all five complete reviews here:
http://www.homeschoolhorizons.ca/2011/09/review-the-old-swing-bridge/

eBook now available!

2011-09-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge is now available as an eBook! You can purchase it from just about any eBook supplier, but by using the following link, you support the author/publisher directly. Click the BUY button below the image to purchase; click READ for an excerpt.

The Royal Tour

2011-07-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

I have been following the Royal Tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge these past few days. It is remarkable how much the coverage is reminiscent of that in 1939, when King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth toured Canada. There is the same freshness and display of affection which I have noted while researching The King's Puzzle. And I enjoy seeing so much emphasis placed on our British traditions and military history during their travels. Makes me feel that the Canada of pre-1968 is coming back.

Of course, there are the naysayers who bash the Monarchy. But in that regard, I turn to my friend Bill Gairdner's words regarding our Canadian legal system:

"It needs criticism and ongoing improvement. But compared to the legal systems of other cultures? No contest! To Mother England we owe most of the freedoms and the common law rights that we too often take for granted. Superior is the British-based right to private property we have known since the twelfth century. Superior are the individual freedoms and rights to protection from Statism that were enshrined in Magna Carta in 1215, and improved and defended ever since (well, until 1982 in Canada). [Observe] the contrast between the British-based common law system and the French-based code law system, and the superiority of the former. That all who have thrown in their lot with the English bottom-up common law system are free to do anything that is not prohibited by the law is an extraordinary inheritance of the English people. We are presumed free by birth and by inherited right. This stands in stark opposition to the dictates found in so many top-down nations of history where citizens are permitted to do only what is specified--or altered by judges--in a written code. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms [thank you, Pierre Trudeau--I.W.] has seriously undermined our proud legal tradition."

Author visit to Washago School

2011-06-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

On June 2, the whole Wilson family enjoyed visiting Rama Central Public School in Washago. Ian's PowerPoint presentation to the Grade 4, 5 & 6 classes was followed by a lively question and answer period. All these students had read The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge in class, so they were curious about the background of the story and the writing process. The familiar setting of Washago and environs made Angus's adventures all the more real to them!

Here's Ian with Matilda, the girl who introduced her teacher, Mr. Elliott (on the right) to The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of three kids named Spencer! The one on the far right is Spencer Wilson.

In the afternoon, Ian led Mr. Elliott's Grade 5 class on a tour of some of the sites featured in The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge. Here we are at the end of the road where the old Highway 11 swing bridge used to span the Trent-Severn Canal.

Here is the old White Rose Station which provided the inspiration for Eddie's garage and house.

By the tracks in Washago . . .

Mr. Elliott's class, plus a few visitors . . .

Exploring the park where Angus lost his toy rocket

By sheer coincidence, we were visited by the real "Hookah Hopkin" at our home in Orillia later that day. You just never know when this leather-clad recluse is going to turn up on your doorstep!

Some thoughts as I work on the backstory for "The King's Puzzle"

2011-06-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

I have by my desk a series of books on the craft of novel writing by James N. Frey. They have served me well on this wonderful journey into the fiction writer's domain. Frey likens a writer's journey to that of a hero's in a novel or in mythology: a trek into the "mythological woods". In the mythological woods, the writer comes to grips with various 'monsters' in his imagination. Writing, that is, honest writing, is a trip through the mythological woods, overpowering the scary stuff which lurks behind the trees.

In the fascinating process of creating The King's Puzzle, I am digging deep to find what it is that I stand for as a writer and as a person. This essence or purpose for a writer, once understood and defined, cannot help but pervade the author's work. Writing is not for the squeamish--it is ultimately a soul-baring experience. Woe to the individual who believes serious writing is anything less.

Anyway, to The King's Puzzle. In this upcoming novel I will present a riveting story, at times venturing from a mystery into the "thriller" category. I am a conservative, and social conservative (I believe the two labels are inseparable) writer. In this novel, I will be presenting themes, premises, overarching ideas, subtext--whatever label may be applied to describe a novel's, and author's, essence--which will be against the grain of much of the current establishment of Canadian literature.

In some blog reading this morning, I came across a fellow named Conrad DiDiodato, who is a Canadian poet and teacher. Visit his blog at http://didiodatoc.blogspot.com/. A paragraph from Conrad's blog from about a year ago jumped out at me, as I contemplate the themes I will be presenting in The King's Puzzle, and how they will likely be contrary to those permeating much of the body of work which we classify as today's Canadian Literature. I have never applied for, or accepted, public funding for any of my books. I certainly do not intend to reverse that practice with The King's Puzzle. This entry from Conrad sums up my own thoughts on public funding for the arts in Canada:

"It's too easy to write in Canada: state intervention is usually anything but oppressive. Cultural productions in this country, in fact, are the result of a system of "literacy by bureaucracy" in which artistic output is tied directly to publicly funded Canada Council (and other various regional) grants & subsidies programs. A kind of 'royal privilege' granted to permissible writings. Envisaged as a strategic plan,with objectives and strategies aimed at blending as many "traditions, practices, and media" into one national body of work, it's no wonder so much of our national literature looks bland and uniform. Any kind of protest is bound to come (as it has lately with news of more Harper government arts cuts) when artist-recipients stop receiving their arts monies or not as much as they've been accustomed to. Nothing stirs more heated debate than any form of cuts to cultural spending. I don't ever recall a national debate on literary innovation nor any sort of impassioned oratory from poets & artists to equal the fervor of government funding."

Book review by The Canadian Homeschooler

2011-06-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Lisa Marie Fletcher, who maintains a website called The Canadian Homeschooler, recently did a review of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge. We like what she had to say:

Get ready for an adventure – here comes Angus Wolfe!
I’m excited to introduce a fun new fiction series by Canadian author Ian Wilson. This first book, The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, is the beginning of a series that follows the mystery-adventures of a 12 year old Ontario boy named Angus Wolfe. In this first book, he stumbles onto some old documents which throw him and his new assistant, a homeschooled girl named Amanda, deep into a mystery that leads them on a journey through the history of World War II and how it affected the nearby town of Washago, Ontario. The deeper the adventure goes, the more the answers come closer to home.
I took the time to read this novel and was deeply drawn into an engaging and mysterious story that left me wondering til the end! I really enjoyed it.

You can read the complete posting here: http://thecanadianhomeschooler.com/2011/05/angus-wolfe/
This website is chock full of useful information and resources for Canadian homeschoolers. This month, visitors to the site have the opportunity to win a copy of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge.

Thanks Lisa Marie!

Regular Saturday gig

2011-05-06T15:44:00.001-07:00

A reminder that we are set up every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Orillia Farmer's Market in our fair city. Browse and/or purchase any of the books we have in stock, or just come to chat! I've been filling visitors in on The King's Puzzle. Today I wrote Chapter 8 of an anticipated 25 chapters.

To quote the Orillia Farmer's Market publicity blurb:

"This is one of the longer-running farmers' markets in the province, with its roots in the 1840s. The Farmers' Market continues to proudly boast of its range of locally produced foods, handmade crafts from around the county and regularly scheduled special events for the family. Our growers offer fresh-picked produce in season, and drug-free meats, with a variety of baked goods and ready-to-eat treats in a sociable atmosphere. Bring your family, meet your friends, shop the vendors, enjoy the talent of local musicians in the Market Cafe."

My career as a writer

2011-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

For fans who are interested in the story of the writer behind the books, I invite you to look at this article from Kate Grigg of the Orillia Packet & Times. I've given a number of interviews in my writing career, but none more revealing than this one. I hope it may be inspirational to other writers and people of artistic bents (and I'm bent, believe me).

Water tank footings at Carley

2011-05-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

I went out to Carley (on the Canadian Pacific mainline, between Craighurst and Medonte) this afternoon. There, I poked around the former railway facilities with my friend Paul Frechette. Among other things, we found evidence of the grain building, the livestock pens and the station. Most notably, I took a few pictures of the footings for the old octagonal enclosed water tank. This is the one which appears on the cover of The King's Puzzle.

The second picture shows the concrete footings a little closer. This place is oozing with atmosphere, which is why I've chosen it as the primary setting for my next book. Matter of fact, I'm going to be standing at Carley at 9:00 p.m. on May 22 this year, to see if I can summon up any ghosts. At least a couple of friends are coming along, let me know if you're interested too.

Introducing The King's Puzzle

2011-05-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

I am in the midst of documenting the adventures of Angus Wolfe and Amanda Webb, two adventurous 13-year-olds. This time, they are attempting to solve a puzzle which Angus's grandfather, at the age of ten, created for King George VI. The intent was for the King to work at the puzzle as a pleasant diversion during the historic Royal Tour of Canada, by train, in May and June 1939.

The cover art depicts Hudson 2850 stopping at Carley, Ontario, on May 22, 1939. The Royal Train was northbound, time was about 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Here, the locomotive is just starting to pull away after taking water, while thousands of people are standing on the hillside. Large bonfires, in the tradition of the Scottish Highlands, have been lit for the pleasure of Their Majesties.

Angus will be releasing pieces of the puzzle over a period of time in advance of the book's release in late July 2011. You can see these on his blog entitle Angus Wolfe's Scrapbook. For more details on the book, please see the Classic Books for Boys homepage.

More on the tourist motor camp era...

2011-04-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Keith Hopkin's comment on the previous post sent me looking for another gem. Pictured is the cabins at the Couchiching Inn, near Orillia.

Get this description, from the Ontario Motor League 1930-31 Road Book, regarding Muskoka accommodation:

"The scores of resorts in this district run the gamut from the humble farm home near the water where the good wife ekes out the scanty cash supply by keeping summer boarders with the inevitable 'boating and bathing', on up through varying degrees of luxury to the palatial hotel where one is presumed to dress for dinner and a bath goes with one's room."

The tourist camp era on Highway 11

2011-04-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

To the right is a snippet of an Ontario Motor League route map from the 1940s showing the drive between Orillia and Huntsville. At the time, Highway 11 in the vicinity was two lanes, and passed through every community en route--Orillia, Washago, Severn Bridge, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge and Huntsville.

I am fond of studying the few decades, say from about 1920 until 1955, when the railways, highways and waterways of Ontario were all viable transportation routes. Construction and upgrading of our road network ultimately made the highways prevail. Railway lines were abandoned or relegated to freight-only. The big change, which began in the early 1950s and continues to the present day, saw the settlement areas re-aligned in accordance with highway transportation. Each of the communities along Highway 11 between Orillia and North Bay have been bypassed with four-lane highway, leaving the former two-lane route in the core. It is along the pieces of the former highway where remnants such as old gasoline stations (most often converted to other uses), tourist cabins, small hotels and restaurants tell a story of an earlier era.

In many of my books, I enjoy exploring the two-lane highway era in Ontario, as depicted in the above map. In the Highway 11 corridor which is featured in The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, a series of bypasses were constructed in the 1950s. Each in turn alleviated a bottleneck, but at the same time created a new one. The book features a tourist camp along Highway 11 north of Orillia named the Riverview Cabins. Establishments like this one took hold along provincial highways when motor car transportation gained popularity in the 1920s. They were a step up from sleeping in the car (with a "car blanket"), but much more economical than the hotels which were thriving in city centres (those, of course, declined into local watering holes as the highway bypasses took the motor trade outside the city core).

Author's love of trains...

2011-04-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

Frank Matys of Orillia Today dropped by last week for an interview. We chatted about The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, my railway books and the N and HO scale models on hand. Frank's piece can be read here.

Book review from a young fan

2011-04-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

Here's what a reader named Nicholas has to say about The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge:

This book is fantastic! I first learned about Ian Wilson when I enjoyed reading one of his train books (Steam to the Niagara Frontier). I thought that it was excellent, quality reading material and very interesting! This winter I had the pleasure of reading his latest book, The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge! The story is about a 12-year-old boy whose great-grandfather had suffered a tragedy in World War II. No one knew who had committed the awful crime. The boy and his new friend Amanda solve the mystery over their summer vacation. The truth is very surprising to everyone! In the end, both of them discover that if they stay in the Washago area, they will have lots of mysteries to unravel! This book is full of suspense and I didn’t want to put it down! I would highly recommend it to any boys or girls between the age of 10 and 15! It is one of my favourite books, and I bet that in a short time it will become any reader's favourite book as well!

Revealing my fondness for hamburgers...

2011-03-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

As mentioned a few weeks ago, I had lunch with Ramara Chronicle editor Rob McCormick in Washago to discuss The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge and other of my works. The interview produced a most revealing profile of some of my favourite things.

The King's Puzzle is underway!

2011-03-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is the community hall at Carley, Ontario, about a 20-minute drive west of Orillia. Of course, this used to be a school. For the sharp-of-eyed, that enamel sign betrays Canadian Pacific Railway ancestry. That indeed was the station name sign at this community on the CPR Mactier Subdivision.

The King's Puzzle, second volume in the Angus Wolfe adventures series, is underway; I wrote the first chapter today. Much of it centres around the flagstop station on the CPR named Carley.

Regarding the King, he is the same King George VI featured in the current movie entitled The King's Speech.

Ramara Public Library workshop

2011-02-27T18:28:00.000-08:00

I'll be doing a program during March Break at the Ramara Public Library (just south of Orillia on Highway 12, at Casino parking lot). It deals with the creation of the Angus Wolfe and Amanda Webb characters, the mystery series, and what's coming.

Everyone--boys, girls, parents--is welcome, but there is a sign-up list. Of course, the author will do some readings from The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge. Participants will have a chance to purchase books, take pictures with the author. Maybe even have a big snowball fight afterward? That's the kind of thing Angus likes to do. Away from the library, of course...

Adding excerpts of railway books

2011-02-21T13:56:00.000-08:00

I have begun adding excerpts from my nine railway books to the Classic Books for Boys website. The first to be posted is from Steam at Allandale. Click on the Excerpt link to read a section of the book. I'll continue posting from the other eight railway books tomorrow. Also, I've changed the excerpt from The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge to a portion of Chapter 5. This is the "boy meets girl" piece, which everyone seems to like, myself included. It gives a nice introduction to the two principal characters and offers a fair bit of background.

Weekly gig at Orillia Farmer's Market

2011-02-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

We've met a few hundred of our local book fans over the past three months in Orillia. If you are in the neighbourhood, please drop by our table at the Orillia Farmer's Market., anytime between 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Lots of free parking, good food, local artisans, etc. This is a picture of me with one of my young fans a couple of weeks ago at our stall. It was uncanny meeting him: he seemed to know my characters better than I did!

Talk about pressure!

2011-02-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

My wife Mary-Jo has been a part of a book club for a few years. When each lady's turn comes up (they're all ladies, and none of the husbands are allowed in!), she chooses a book and hosting location for the next monthly meeting. For years I've been lobbying my Sweets to choose one of my railway books for the ladies to read. No luck, although many of them have a volume or two on their shelves (mainly a result of their husband helping to unload a truck, or having a book dedicated to him).

In the world of sales, they say that you need to hear the word "no" about seven times before achieving success. Bingo! When I published The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, Mary-Jo selected it for her turn. And last Friday night the ladies met at our house, upon which occasion I achieved another first: a husband being allowed into the meeting!

Book review in Railroad Model Craftsman

2011-02-15T10:37:00.000-08:00

The March 2011 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman contains a review of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge by Associate Editor Chris D'Amato. Among other comments, Chris says that "It's nice to see an author bring a contemporary spin to children's railway literature. There is nothing like a good mystery to pique a child's interest in reading."

And, as a longtime subscriber and contributor to this fine magazine, I recommend it to fellow railway modellers who like to keep the "craftsman" element of the hobby alive.

Feeding the trumpeter swans...

2011-02-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

Washago, Ontario is the most inspiring place in the world for me. Four of the ten books I've written include this railway junction town between their covers; The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge is set almost entirely around Washago. Here is another reason why the place is so magical: trumpeter swans. On three occasions in the past week, we have fed these magificent waterfowl out of our hands (cracked corn). I counted 48 of them a couple of days ago. I told my two sons that the moments spent with the trumpeters up close are worth more than an entire day in a classroom. All over North America, kids mostly know these birds as pictures in a textbook. Not the case here, in Washago. That's Mary-Jo with her hand outstretched. We now have about 51 lbs. to go in our 55 lb. bag of cracked corn...

Now on Facebook...

2011-02-04T08:37:00.000-08:00

I've started a Facebook page for the children's book series, you can find it under Ian Wilson. If you're on Facebook and a fan of the books, feel free to send Friends requests, etc.

Interview at Washago...

2011-02-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by Rob McCormick for an upcoming article in the Ramara Chronicle. This is a quality periodical which comes out six times per year and is free of charge! The feature article will come out in a week or two. Rob and I dined at the Log Cabin Restaurant (dead ringer for the Washago Grill in The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge). He took this picture of me at the Trent Severn Waterway with the current Highway 11 bridge in the background. Were I standing in this place in 1955 or earlier, I would be mowed down by traffic!

Story time for kids...

2011-01-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did my first-ever school reading from The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, for a class of Grade 3 students here in Orillia. The local newspaper captured yours truly in a rocking chair, wearing glasses, surrounded by kids. This is what life after 50 looks like! Seriously, it was a blast, and I have many more such appearances being lined up. Photo by the Orillia Packet & Times.

White Rose station at Washago

2010-12-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

For folks wishing a bit of background, here is a summary on the old White Rose service station at Washago. It is told from the point of view of a gas pump, believe it or not. More such goodies will follow.

Background on Highway 11 swing bridge at Washago

2010-12-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

We have posted our first topic in the Goodies section of our home page. Have a look at it! This one deals with the old highway swing bridge at Washago which was removed in 1955.

Feature article in newspaper...

2010-12-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers, a feature article on the motivation, inspiration, etc., behind the Swing Bridge book has been published online here.

Now moving to the Barrie Public Library...

2010-11-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

... I am anxious to see if that nearby library, in a city of well over 100,000 people, has the similar lack of selection for boy young readers as we ~~enjoy~~ tolerate in Orillia.

As of today, there are 25,837 different fiction items listed in the Children's Department of the Barrie Public Library. Statistically, we only need a random sample of 96 to afford predictions as to the entire collection within 10% accuracy, 95% of the time. The Barrie Public Library children's fiction catalogue is too large to break down easily. So, these 25,837 items represent books, CDs, videos, sound recordings and the like. Further, there is no breakdown for language. To be safe, I will double the sample size to ensure that well over 96 of the sample are books.

Okay, out of a sample of 191 items, we'll discard 21 in languages other than English (20 French, 1 Spanish). Also removed are the 22 video and audio items, plus one item in Braille. That leaves 147 conventional books sampled, which means that we can predict the characteristics of the Barrie Public Library's children's fiction department within 8% accuracy 95% of the time.

Once again, I recall that I am looking for male-authored books for boy young readers, dealing with earthly things. No ghouls, vampires, monsters, etc. need apply.

Of those 147 books in this sample, I discard 85 of them for being in the 4-to-8 age range. I note that 46 of these are written by females, 39 by males. Compared to its Orillia counterpart (61:39% female:male ratio), the Barrie Library at a 54:46% female to male ratio appears to be making more of an effort to balance the gender of authors for children in the 4-to-8 age range.

Examining the 62 remaining titles in the Barrie sample which might be of interest to boys using the considerations outlined above, almost 1/3 (19) are by female authors and girl-centred. Another 16 are by female authors (including 2 animal-centred and one vegetable-centred). I'll also eliminate additional titles which are girl-centred or girl-boy centred (4 apiece).

That leaves 19 books (13%) of our sample in Barrie's young reader's collection written by male authors which are boy-centred. That is well over twice as many as the Orillia Library (at just over 5%) has to offer. A bias against male-authored, boy-centred books for young readers at Orillia? Compared to Barrie, at least, apparently so.

Back to those 19 books in our Barrie sample by male authors and boy-centred for young readers. Of those a full 14 deal with earthly matters. That is an admirable 9.5%, or almost one in ten books in the Barrie children's department which are male-authored, boy-centred and for young readers who do not wish to be scared by the supernatural. As a father of two boys in that age range, what do I have by comparison at my local Orillia Library? Barely over 2%, or about 1 in 50, on the shelves at Orillia. In other words, the Barrie Library has five times the representation as Orillia's library. Wow.

Put into plain terms, say you're the parent of a young reader who happens to be a boy, and wishes to find him a novel to read which is written from a male perspective (who else in the world has experienced life through a boy's eyes?), and don't want to be scared by unworldy stuff. Or say you are the boy himself. You can browse the children's department at Barrie and reasonably expect one in ten books to be of consideration.

At Orillia? You would have to flail through fifty books to find one of possible interest.

Good thing I have a Barrie library card!

More fun at the local library!

2010-11-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

After my recent survey of our local library for suitable books for boys, I decided to try another sample. What is the recent acquisition pattern for children's books, if any?

For this case study, I focused on the 565 titles in the Children's Fiction Department of the Orillia Public Library under the "New" category, as of November 24, 2010. These were organized in order of "relevance", and a statistical sample of 83 was taken. On a purely random basis, this affords results within 10% accuracy, 95% of the time. Contact me if you would like a copy of the Excel spreadsheet I created for this sample.

Onward, then. What of the 83 titles? I remind myself that I am looking for books for boys, written by male authors, in the "young readers" category (let's call it ages 9 to 12, as Amazon does). And we'd prefer subject matter dealing with earthly things, not monsters, ghouls, dragons, fairies and the like.

Hmm, bad start again. Of those 83 titles, 59 (or 71%) are for ages 4 to 8 (including a single for preschoolers). That only leaves 24 of the sample.

Carrying on, ten of those 24 titles are girl-centred by female authors. What does that leave, 14 of the original 83? And of those, another 5 are by female authors. This reduces the pool of male-authored books for young readers to 9 out of 83, or less than 11%, and we haven't even begun to consider the focus of the writing!

Lets look at that shrunken pile of 9 new books from our sample. Well, only 5 of them are boy-centred (the remainder in the "neutral" category).

Down to 5 out of 83, alas, four of those deal with the non-earthly stuff outlined above.

And what of the single book out of an accurate-within-10%, 95%-of-the-time survey of 565 new fiction books at the Orillia Public Library, by a male author arguably suitable for boy young readers?

Ugh. It's something called Captain Underpants and the big, bad battle of the bionic booger boy.

Is this pattern typical of North American public libraries, or just Canadian ones, or just my local one? I truly don't know. If anyone has any thoughts, please comment below or contact me directly.

Time to go browsing for used books on the 'Net again...

By the way, folks, we are taking delivery of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge on December 1, as planned.

Why is it important for us to have more books for boys published?

2010-11-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

What do you do when there is a scarcity of wholesome adventure books for boys in the 8-to-14 age range, written by male authors, on the shelves of today’s bookstores? I am a dad who reads a chapter of one or more books to my two boys at least once a day. Much more often than that, they read other books on their own.We would like to read books that are boy-centred, written by male authors. But I am disillusioned to say the least.

To illustrate my point, I happen to be writing this on November 18, 2010, but take a day of your choice to do a similar survey. I am looking at the current 50 bestsellers on Amazon.com in the books for children category.

Granted, of the 50 bestsellers, there are a total of 13 books for boys and girls in the 4-to-8 age range. These include classics such as those by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. No arguments there, but my boys are 10 and almost 8 years old, and have outgrown that material except when we read it for the sake of nostalgia.

Of the remaining 37 titles in our survey of today's top-50 bestselling childrens' books on Amazon, those in the fantasy/mythology (including the Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and Harry Potter series) or horror categories amount to 20. What are those parents, families and children like us to do if we don’t care for violence, monsters, vampires, magic or Greek mythology?

Well, we still have 17 of Amazon’s 50 bestselling titles to examine. Okay, but more than half of them (9 altogether) are girl-centred and almost exclusively written by female authors.

Picky, picky some people might say. Surely you can find something to enjoy of the remaining 8 titles? Uh, not likely. Five of them are in the Wimpy Kid series(mildly entertaining, but frankly we’re not looking for a comic book, which is too hard to read aloud anyway), two of them are biographies of teeny celebrities, and the last one is Obama’s Letter to My Daughters. Yikes.

So I say to myself: okay, conservative, family-centred, homeschooling dad, why don’t you go to the library? Surely the public library will have some mystery and adventure books of interest to you and your boys. Especially for your favourite time of day, reading to them at bedtime.

Well, okay, let's give the library a try. May as well start locally (I live in a city of 30,000 people). Rather than make a trip out, I will start on the Orillia Public Library web catalogue. A search of the subject category “juvenile fiction” indicates that there are 7695 titles. An online statistical calculator tells me that a random sample of 95 of those 7695 titles would yield results accurate within 10% with 95% confidence. Good enough for my purposes. Let's take every 84th book in the Orillia Public Library catalogue on November 18, 2010, starting with the 40th title.

Reminding myself of what I am looking for—simply a work of fiction for young readers which is boy-centred by a male author—I begin reviewing the offering of the juvenile fiction department of the Orillia Public Library. Using the above methodology, I randomly sample 95 titles and meticulously examine their bibliographic details on various library, author, publisher and retail websites.

Okay, I have gathered this random sample of the library catalogue by way of my desktop computer. Let’s take a look at the results. Hmm, not a good start. Almost half the books (46, with 28 of those by female authors no less) are in the newborn to 8-year-old age range. These are of no interest for the present purpose. But there are still 49 books to go in this search, so I am hopeful.

And of those remaining 49? Well, it turns out that more than half (25) of them are girl-centred and by female authors. Grr. Man, I am glad to be sitting at my desk and not having made a trip to the library on this cold November day. Let’s soldier onward, though, we still have 24 books of the original 95 to examine.

Note to librarians everywhere: I think it is important, not essential, but important, for boys to read books written from a male’s perspective (item: of this representative sample, 74% of the books are by female authors). How many of those remaining 24 books qualify? You’re kidding, a full 17 of those are written by females? Let’s see, that leaves only 7 books of the original 95 on this sample bookshelf.

I started this business, so I’m going to see it through to the end. Come on, Orillia Public Library, please don’t let me down. What have you got among those remaining 7 titles? Egad, two of them are girl-centred. Oh no, I’m down to five now. And 3 of those deal with monsters or fantasy. My goodness, what does that leave—only two books?

But, Heavens to Betsy, those two books are by male authors and boy-centred. Hallelujah! Mind you, I’m overlooking the fact that one of this lonely pair is told from the perspective of a horse, otherwise I’d be worse off in the public library than at Amazon.

Where is all this leading? Let me offer a parallel from my life's experience. One of my hobbies is railway modelling, particularly as it pertains to the steam locomotive era in my home province of Ontario, Canada. For years I waited in vain for someone to write a book which covered what I wanted—a portrayal of the nuts-and-bolts aspects of railway operations around my hometown of Allandale (Barrie), Ontario in the 1950s. With living memories slipping away, I decided in 1997 to write that book myself—the book which I had wished someone else would write. I kept that up for 13 years in fact (and may someday continue), writing and publishing nine hardcover volumes in the series.

But things other than railways and scale models have drawn most of my attention in recent years. I have been restless for a long while, as my boys have grown, for someone to write the books the three of us want to read. We don't ask for much--just wholesome adventure or mystery stories with nothing weird like monsters, fairies, vampires or magic. Books that the average boy and dad can relate to, and be entertained by. For years, I have sought out and purchased (never borrowed from libraries, because they are not there any more) copies of books for boys published 50 and more years ago. Among others, we have enjoyed reading the original Hardy Boys series, Stephen Meader’s adventure books for boys, the Mel Martin baseball stories written by John R. Cooper, and Canadian authors Jack Hambleton and Jack O’Brien, both of whom wrote boys’ outdoor adventure books set in our country.

Alas, the list of yesteryear's classic titles for boys is only so long. As the sampling of books at Amazon and the local library reveal, there may not be a lot coming our way in the present or near future. I am not encouraged by the fact that the educational system has let boys down for decades.

So, in the same spirit of writing the first of my nine railway books back in 1997, I have applied myself to the field of childrens’ literature. The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge is for boys, parents and relatives of boys, teachers of boys, and anyone who has even been a boy. It is written by a home-schooling, self-employed father of two boys who enjoy a range of interests. Girls, I am not neglecting you; the second of the two main characters in the novel is a 13-year-old girl. I am not going head-to-head with the Jeff Kinneys, Rick Riordans and J. K. Rowlings of the world. But if you are in the disgruntled group who believes that the number of fiction books for boys published in recent years is insufficient, or if you enjoy a gripping tale, I invite you to read an excerpt from The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge. The book will be released around December 1.

And, librarians, in any public library in North America: if you can demonstrate to me that even 5% of your juvenile fiction department titles are boy-centred and written by male authors for young readers (using statistical methods outlined above), then an autographed copy of The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge will be on its way to you with my compliments.

Announcing for our U.S. customers...

2010-11-12T06:02:00.000-08:00

... we now have a couple of major vendors for your convenience. The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge will be available direct from Bookmasters, our U.S. fulfillment center. The book is also being carried at Amazon.com.

Our Canadian customers will find it most convenient to order direct.

Starting around December 1, we expect to have our four most recent railway book titles listed at Bookmasters and Amazon as well.

Swing Bridge excerpt

2010-11-10T15:37:00.000-08:00

We are happy to report that The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge is in production at the printer. The work flow is on schedule for our December 1 release. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy this tantalizing excerpt of the first eight pages!

The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge

2010-10-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that our next release, The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge, has gone to the printer! For information about the book, please view our new flyer and mail order form. You can pre-order online.

Meet Big Jim!

2010-09-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

I finished Chapter 19 of the new Angus Wolfe mystery/adventure known as The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge yesterday. This will be a 224-page novel for young readers, to be released in November. Price will be $19.95. A perfect gift for a boy or girl between 8 and 14 years of age! Parents, grandparents and other adults will enjoy the book too.

Here is an excerpt from a chapter which introduces the character above:

"Angus, tongue-tied, nodded and murmured in affirmation. Then the porch door opened again, more quietly this time, and his grandmother emerged with the other lady. "Mabel, I don't think this fellow was even born when you made your last visit. This is my oldest grandson, Angus." The boy stood up, smiled at the lady and said hello. "And this guy," his grandmother snuggled up to the tall man, rested her head affectionately on his shoulder and smiled up at his face, “this is the proprietor of Parry Sound’s most famous hunting and fishing lodge. Everyone calls him Big Jim." Angus couldn’t help breaking into a wide grin as he sized up the larger-than-life character in front of him. This was Amanda’s grandfather. No wonder she had been so outgoing. Then a black shape beyond the farthest verandah window caught his eye. He ran to the end of the porch, pressed his face against the window screen and stared at a shiny, immaculate 1949 Buick."

Combination offer on books until September 15

2010-08-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hi folks:

We have tabled a limited-time offer for anyone needing a copy of Steam Memories of Lindsay, in combination with other books. Please see details here. And email this to friends!

Excerpt from: The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge

2010-07-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

A steady downpour pelted the windows of the Wolfe family automobile as it headed north to Washago after breakfast. Undaunted by the weather, Angus had coaxed his father and younger brother to don his rain gear and take a trip north to the scene of their adventure a day earlier. Although he had mulled over the contents of the first page of coded documents, Angus had no clue as to their meaning. His father was equally in the dark.

Approaching the small railway town, the car decelerated quickly in order to negotiate a tight turn off the highway. For some years, Angus and his Dad had noticed a derelict wooden building on what appeared to be the original route of the two-lane highway through the town. From outward appearances, the structure had been an old gasoline service station. Nowadays, it sat abandoned among tall grass, a number of derelict automobiles and other cast-off junk. Nonetheless, the garage door was open, and a couple of men could be seen leaning over the engine of a pickup truck.

Drawing to a stop in front of the old building, Angus, Dougie and their father climbed out of the vehicle. With rain hoods over their heads, the three walked briskly to the open garage door where the men were engaged in their task. "Hi fellows", the older of the two gentlemen said as they approached. He was dressed in blue coveralls, with gray hair and mustache, and a grease-stained baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. Hanging the workshop trouble light onto an opening in the hood, he wiped his hands on a rag and inquired of the elder Wolfe as to how he may be of service.

"We were wondering if this used to be an old service station," Angus jumped in. When answered in the affirmative, he prompted "Do you remember what oil company it was?"

"White Rose," came the immediate reply. "Eddie ran the place until the early 1960s when he closed it up after the highway bypass was put in."

"Is Eddie still around?”

"Yep, lives just two houses down. Still owns this place, we just work here occasionally." A soft chortle, followed by an agonizing grunt and expletive, came from the companion who had been wrestling with the fan belt. "He'd be happy to talk to you, talks to anyone these days. Eddie goes way back, farther than either of us. He's a little funny sometimes, though, you know," the elder gentleman said, tapping a finger to his temple in a demeaning manner. "Don't believe everything he tells you, most of it is hogwash, but he sure tells a good tale!"

Mr. Wolfe thanked the man, then led his two sons back to the vehicle. Removing his hood, Angus said "Dad, I want to talk to somebody in this town who goes back to 1943. Maybe they’ll remember what was going on that summer. After all, that old service station is just a stone’s throw from our tree which toppled in that park." Looking through the rain-streaked windows, the boys could indeed see their favorite playground, separated from the row of old buildings along the former highway by only a grove of trees and a swamp. Where the downed trunk had stood yesterday, only piles of sawdust remained.

As the vehicle pulled over to the shoulder, Angus, Dougie and their father realized that once again they would have to put on their hoods and walk through the rain. Stepping along a wooden walkway, they approached the front porch, where Angus pushed the ringer. A middle-aged woman came to the door, gasped at their drenched condition, then urged them inside. With no hesitation, the Wolfes entered the front hallway and once again doffed their headgear.

"We were speaking to the two gentlemen down at the old service station," Angus began. "They mentioned that a fellow named Eddie used to run the business, and he lived a couple of doors down."

"Yes, he's my father," replied the affable woman. "Would you like to speak to him? He's been sitting on the back porch watching the rain for hours. I imagine he would love someone to talk to. Just as much as you fellows would love a cup of hot chocolate?" she ventured, kneeling down to help Dougie remove his raincoat. "Don't be shy, fellows, just head right in through the back room there and you'll find him. I'll bring the hot chocolate and some biscuits right away."

With a smile, the boys and their Dad headed to the back veranda, where an elderly gentleman was indeed reclining in an old wooden rocking chair. Approaching the oldtimer hesitantly, Angus held out his hand and said "Hi Eddie. My name is Angus, this is my little brother Dougie, and this is my father, Mr. Wolfe." While the lads settled into a hammock chair, the father sat down on a comfortable armchair nearby and clasped the man in a firm handshake.

"Is that so, then," Eddie began. "Well, fellows, what brings you here today? It's too doggone rainy to go fishing and I doubt that you will be playing in your favourite park!" Father and sons looked at each other incredulously as they realized that the gentleman must be familiar with their local haunt. "Yes sir, I seen you brothers playing there for well nigh three years now. Never seen yous come over here, though I wish I coulda been playin’ with that fancy rocket I seen you shootin' off t’other day!"

While the two boys looked at each other with smiles on their faces, their father addressed their new acquaintance. "Eddie, the fellows down at the old service station tell us that you have been here for awhile. I wondered if you went back all the way to 1943, and if you were living in this house then."

Grasping the arms of his chair, Eddie pulled himself forward to accept the mug of coffee which his daughter offered. Angus and Dougie hungrily eyed the plate of cookies which had been set on the table before them, and sipped at their cups of hot chocolate. Mr. Wolfe thanked their hostess, after which she shuffled out of the room with a smile. It was evident that she was very pleased that her father had company on this rainy morning.

"You say 1943. Interesting that you should mention that year, but I'll come back to that later. My dad opened the White Rose station in the mid-1920s, just after the Trent Seven Canal came through. A few years before the War, I became his grease monkey, changing tires, filling radiators, checking oil, all that kind of thing. Gosh, we was busy then. You wouldn't know any of this, but that road out there used to be the main highway through Washago. There were only two service stations in the town, and we got the lion's share of the business. Folks in their cars would be backed up for miles sometimes, with the old swing bridge and two railway crossings.” He guffawed and reached for a cookie. “Would you believe that they even got into fist fights? On holiday weekends, the traffic in one direction could be backed up five miles! The poor bridge tender barricaded himself in his shack! Boats would be a honkin’, cars would sideswipe each other on the narrow bridge, with door handles and chrome bein’ scraped off. There were more lawsuits and complaints over that one bridge than any on the entire highway! But,” he smiled as he watched Angus tackle a peanut butter cookie, “all those cars stopped in front of our service station meant lots of business. As a boy, I used to walk up and down the whole string of ‘em selling candy bars, chips, cigarettes and even ice cream on some days!"

Mr. Wolfe could see that the old fellow was indeed getting worked up, and the tales were indeed entertaining. He wanted to steer Eddie back to their matter of interest, though. "You mentioned 1943 as being an interesting summer. Had you taken over the service station from your father by then? Or did something else happen?"

Sipping on his coffee for a few moments, the old fellow winced and then settled back into his chair. "Well, there were a lot of things that happened during the War, but I remember the summer of 1943 especially. Dad was still runnin’ the shop, but I was doing everything with him by then. It wasn't anything to do with the service station that was of interest, though.” He paused, and his voice sank to an undertone. “It was the big kerfuffle down by the railway yards."

Welcome to our new Blog!

2010-04-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. My name is Ian Wilson, and I am the author and publisher of a series of railway history books. These describe steam operations in Ontario, Canada during the 1950s. You can learn more about them from our website or our blog.

My wife Mary-Jo and I are self-employed with our publishing business, and we homeschool our two sons aged nine and seven.

Why this blog? For two reasons. One, to share ideas with other parents or grandparents who are seeking good reading material for boys in the 8 to 14-year-old range. During numerous visits to public libraries and bookstores, I have observed multitudes of series of books devoted to girl readers. For boys, a lot of the recent offerings deal with what I consider to be strange or questionable subject matter. Thus, in the search for titles to read to our sons, I have been regularly purchasing used copies of books written anywhere from 40 to 70 years ago.

Secondly, this blog will be used to update readers on the status of my first in a series of adventure books, to be released in the autumn of 2010. The title of this volume will be The Secret of the Old Swing Bridge.

I mentioned that we read series' of old books. Some of our favorites are the early Hardy Boys (anything published before about 1960, when they went to the blue covers). We really enjoy Stephen Meader's adventure books. The Mel Martin series of baseball stories by John R. Cooper are great. Also a Canadian author by the name of Jack Hambleton, wrote a number of wonderful books for boys in the 1940s and 1950s set in Ontario and the Canadian North.

If you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, etc. of boys in the 8 to 14-year-old range, and any of the above interests you, then please respond with a comment!