Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush by C. Shields and P. Crowe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20361/G27699Abstract
Shields, Carol and Patrick Crowe. Susanna Moodie: Roughing It in the Bush, adaptation by Willow Dawson, illustrated by Selena Goulding. Second Story Press, 2016.
The long genesis of this graphic novel began more than two decades ago, when Governor General’s and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields began collaborating with Patrick Crowe to produce a screenplay based on Susanna Moodie’s classic account of pioneer life in early Victorian Upper Canada. Shields’ death in 2003 led Crowe to abandon the project, only to revive it a decade later in this illustrated format. Story editor Willow Dawson has extracted the most significant episodes from the screenplay, and Selena Goulding has provided running illustrations that fairly reflect the landscapes, buildings, home interiors, costumes, and technology of the period 1830–1867. Her style—not inappropriately—is reminiscent of the Classics Illustrated school of comic book art. This reviewer’s only criticism is the very occasional failure of the illustrations to accurately depict things referenced in the text.
Appearing at a time when Canada celebrates 150 years of nationhood, this handsome production serves to provide older children and young adults with an appreciation of the hardships overcome by Canada’s pioneering women, such as Moodie, and her sister and fellow immigrant Catherine Parr Traill, whose very survival sometimes depended upon aid from their First Nations neighbours. As a succinct précis of Moodie’s classic memoir, it may even stimulate interest in reading the longer, original text. The Introduction provided by CanLit doyenne Margaret Atwood, alongside the content attributable to Carol Shields, render the book suitable not only for public and school libraries, but also for academic libraries and all serious collectors of those authors.
Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 stars
Reviewer: Merrill Distad
Historian and author Merrill Distad enjoyed a four-decade career building libraries and library collections.
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