A warm-hearted memoir of a childhood spent living in various mining towns in the Kootenays throughout the 1930s and ’40s. When young Shirley Doris Hall and her family moved to BC’s West Kootenay region in 1927, the area was a hub of mining activity. Shirley’s father, a cook, had no problem finding work at the mining camps, and the family dutifully followed him from town to town as his services were sought after. For Shirley and her brother, Ray—described as both her confidant and her nemesis—mining camps were the backdrop of their youth. The instant close-knit communities that formed around them; the freedom of barely tamed wilderness; and the struggles of the Depression years and the war that followed created an unlikely environment for a happy childhood. Yet Shirley’s memories reveal that it was indeed a magical time and place in which to grow up. Children of the Kootenays paints a lively portrait of this forgotten period in BC history—of mining towns that are now ghost towns—told from the unique perspective of a young girl.

A warm-hearted memoir of a childhood spent living in various mining towns in the Kootenays throughout the 1930s and '40s. When young Shirley Doris Hall and her family moved to BC's West Kootenay region in 1927, the area was a hub of mining activity. Shirley's father, a cook, had no problem finding work at the mining camps, and the family dutifully followed him from town to town as his services were sought after. For Shirley and her brother, Ray--described as both her confidant and her nemesis--mining camps were the backdrop of their youth. The instant close-knit communities that formed around them; the freedom of barely tamed wilderness; and the struggles of the Depression years and the war that followed created an unlikely environment for a happy childhood. Yet Shirley's memories reveal that it was indeed a magical time and place in which to grow up. Children of the Kootenayspaints a lively portrait of this forgotten period in BC history--of mining towns that are now ghost towns--told from the unique perspective of a young girl.

Greg Nesteroff and Eric Brighton started the Lost Kootenays Facebook Group with the intent of preserving, promoting and sharing the history of the Kootenays and the people who lived here. Today the Lost Kootenays community is 48,000 strong and one of the most dynamic sites in British Columbia.

Rarely do we know what life will hold. When starting the adoption process, Jane Byers and her wife could not have predicted the illuminating and challenging experience of living for two weeks with the Evangelical Christian foster parents of their soon-to-be adopted twins. Parenthood becomes even more daunting when homophobia threatens their beginnings as a family, seeping in from places both unexpected and familiar. But Jane and Amy are up for the challenge. In this moving and poetic memoir, Byers draws readers into her own tumultuous beginnings: her coming out years, finding love, and the start of her parenting journey. Love imprints itself where loneliness lived, but sometimes love, alone, is not enough to overcome trauma. Little did Byers know that her experiences when coming out was merely training for becoming an adoptive parent of racialized twins. Small Courage: A Queer Memoir of Finding Love and Conceiving Family is a thoughtful and heart-warming examination of love, queerness and what it means to be a family.

Fourteen Trumpeting Elephants...what has that got to do with Cranbrook or the Kootenays of British Columbia? Why is there a statue of an elephant at the end of Baker Street? What is the best place to pick huckleberries? Grandpa is telling stories to an audience of Cranbrook town folk that include his 10 year old grandson. Grandpa's tales are based on the escape of a herd of elephants from a circus train in 1926. His tales include the imagined escapades of one Charlie Ed: an elephant who successfully evaded his pursuers, and in the weeks of his freedom "climbed mountains, swam rivers and worked at a logging camp. This story provides a much needed historical record suitable for children's as well as adult reading. Too often we do not know the history in our own back yard. This story will not only entertain but educate and hopefully plant seeds of curiosity in children and adults alike....

Nine essays investigate the history of law as an instrument of social control, moral regulation, and the government, focusing primarily on British Columbia, Canada, where most of the contributors work as scholars in law or criminology. Among the areas they tackle are the sex trade, the spread of venereal disease, the use and abuse of liquor, child welfare, mental disorder, intrafamily sexual abuse, Aboriginal culture and traditions, and Doukhobor beliefs and customs. The studies rely on forays into archival material at the national, provincial, and local levels. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This collection of essays examines the relationship between environmental injustice and the exploitation of working-class people. Twelve scholars from the fields of environmental humanities and the humanistic social sciences explore connections between the current and unprecedented rise of environmental degradation, economic inequality, and widespread social injustice in the United States and Canada. The authors challenge prevailing cultural narratives that separate ecological and human health from the impacts of modern industrial capitalism. Essay themes range from how human survival is linked to nature to how the use and abuse of nature benefit the wealthy elite at the expense of working-class people and the working poor as well as how climate change will affect cultures deeply rooted in the land. Ultimately, Working on Earth calls for a working-class ecology as an integral part of achieving just and sustainable human development.

For many, the Doukhobor story is a sensational one: arson, nudity and civil disobedience once made headlines. But it isn't the whole story. Our Backs Warmed by the Sun: Memories of a Doukhobor Life is an intricately woven, richly textured memoir of a family's determination to live in peace and community in the face of controversy and unrest. When author Vera Maloff set out to find the truth about her family's history, she knew something of the struggles of living a pacifist, agrarian life in a world with opposing values. To find the bones of that history she turned to her mother Elizabeth, who, in her nineties, had forgotten nothing. In Our Backs Warmed by the Sun, the author, through the stories of her mother, describes a wholly activist life. The Doukhobors--both the Sons of Freedom and moderate sects--led anti-military protests throughout the early 1900s, harboured draft dodgers in the 60s, and stood up for their beliefs. In response, they were hosed down, arrested, and jailed. Vera learns of the confusion and fear when, as a child, Elizabeth and her family were interned in an abandoned logging camp while their father served time in Oakalla prison for charges related to a peaceful protest, and of her loneliness when, later, she was institutionalized--one of a series of Canadian government efforts in assimilation. By removing the children, it was believed, the cycle of protest and resistance could be broken. Tracing the Doukhobor movement from Russia, the author explores the spiritual influence of its leaders. She does not shy away from the controversial actions of the Sons of Freedom in the darkest days of bombings and arson, or the toll on families and communities, probing with a historian's curiosity and a daughter's tenderness. Elizabeth's story is also one of a small but thriving Kootenay community, and of the experiences of a family who stood by their beliefs. Laughter, ingenuity and tenacity are offered up in the pages of Our Backs Warmed by the Sun, an important and engaging window into our collective history.