Sammy Squirrel & Rodney Raccoon - Softcover

Duane Lawrence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1894694546 ISBN 13: 9781894694544

Publisher: Granville Island Publishing, 2008

Synopsis

When best friends Sammy Squirrel and Rodney Raccoon decide to explore the world beyond Vancouver s Stanley Park, they are carried on a fantastic adventure. Swept out to sea in a little boat, the woodland creatures journey across the Pacific Ocean all the way to Japan. While their courage and ingenuity are tested at every turn, Sammy and Rodney are met by good fortune and are helped by new friends Salty Seagull, Winifred Whale and a deer called Shika. The wide-eyed travelers help resolve a crisis with the deer in Nara, Japan and by the time they return safely home, have broadened their world and gained a deeper understanding of animal and human interactions. The story of Sammy Squirrel and Rodney Raccoon, though a fictional animal adventure, addresses real-life issues about relationships between animals and people. An illustrated chapter book, and first in the Stanley Park Tales series, it promotes awareness and sensitivity to the needs of others. Stanley Park is a hugely popular locale, famous for its natural beauty and urban proximity. Rowing across oceans is a topical theme, resulting in the connecting of cultures, Duane Lawrence s writing highlights the interconnectedness of life, the sensitivity of living creatures and the value of kindness.

About this title

About the Author:

Duane Lawrence was born in Princeton, British Columbia. He is a high-school teacher who has lived and taught in London, England and Nara, Japan (which is in a parklike setting with hundreds of tame deer). The author, who now lives in Vancouver, enjoys walking in the city s Stanley Park and on one such stroll was inspired to write about animals living there. The author speaks French and Japanese and is available for interviews and events.

Review:

NATIONAL POST

Stanley Park's Hollow Tree to get a sendoff
Posted: April 15, 2008, 10:43 AM by Kenny Yum By Brian Hutchinson

Nothing can save Vancouver s ill-fated Hollow Tree from its looming date with a chain-saw but at least someone is giving the rotting, leaning stump a proper sendoff.
According to a press release issued Monday, a local children s author intends to host a celebration of life for the dead cedar, long a tourist attraction in Stanley Park.
The Hollow Tree died sometime in the last century and was cut down. The remaining 13-metre high stump was eventually buttressed with metal bars and cables, in order to allow visitors to stand inside its empty core and gawk. But the contraption now threatens to topple on a bus load of unsuspecting photo snappers.
The Vancouver Park Board decided recently not to spend $70,000 on a new plan to prop it up with what engineers called a "steel stiffener structure." Their $15,000 design called for a Plexiglass roof, to be installed overtop the stump to help shield it from the elements. Cooler heads prevailed and stump is to come down, any day now.
The Hollow Tree celebration takes place at stump central on Thursday at 12:30. Author Duane Lawrence will lead a group of grade four and five school kids in song. He has written these lyrics, which are to be sung to the tune of Oh Canada:
Oh, Stanley Park
Our home and favourite land
Big Douglas firs
Where owls hoot, oh so grand
With cedar trees
And surrounding seas
You can walk there all you like
There's a little lake
Where the beavers make
The best dams in the world
Oh, Stanley Park
The animals live free
Oh, Stanley Park
Was made for you and me
Oh, Stanley Park
Was made for you--and--me.
--NATIONAL POST, April 15, 2008

About this edition

• Publisher: Granville Island Publishing
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1894694546
• ISBN 13: 9781894694544
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 105
• Illustrator: Gordon Clover