Land of the Silver Birch

Land of the Silver Birch
Home of the beaver
Where still the mighty moose
Wanders to Dinah ...

I am SOOO HONOURED!!!! Shadows on the Train has been nominated for Ontario's 2008 Silver Birch Award! This is my second Silver Birch nomination. The first was for The Mask on the Cruise Ship, a couple of years back; or, in my sister Madge's language, about 2,439 new outfits ago.

Melanie is floating on air - in fact, if you tilt your head, you can just about see her orbiting. Oooo, watch out for that Russian satellite, Mel - oh no, a mega-collision ... debris is flying everywhere ... Run for cover!

Pantelli: "Dinah, too bad about your late author, but I need to point out that beavers, in fact, do NOT live in trees."
Me: "What, you've never heard of Bocky the Flying Beaver?"
Pantelli: "I think that was Rocky the Flying Squirrel; and, no."

Singin' in the Train

This post is dedicated to Dinah's friend J.S., who is learning French! Vraiment, tu es merveilleuse, J.S.!

There's another great review of Shadows on the Train, this time as part of a fascinating history of trains in kids' literature. Allow me to add to it by pointing out that I'm not the first singer to go all aboard for a train story. Judy Garland starred in The Harvey Girls. Like me, she was on the tracks (heh heh) of a villain. In that movie, Judy sang the Academy-Award-winning On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, belting it out with such volume, volume, VOLUME that it's amazing the ties didn't fly off the rails. Watch for her below: she makes a dramatic late entrance. (Just as I like to, BTW - funny how this doesn't go over with teachers.)

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

I've been working on the railroad, all right - catching thieves on a cross-Canada train! And now, thanks to a way cool review of Shadows on the Train by Wendy Williams of CM Magazine, I get to blow my own horn. Yay! Thank you, Wendy and CM!