land of diggers, mountain machines, sara leach, sea to sky highway, steven corvelo
In olympics, whistler, whistler writers group, writing on October 31, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Back before the Sea to Sky Highway finished getting its epic facelift, it was such a construction hot-spot that it inspired the fascination of children. Food writer, Andre Lariviere, recalls his toddler daughter dubbing the road “the Land of Diggers.” And Whistler author, Sara Leach, boned up on her heavy machinery vocabulary, turning her son, Ben, into a two year old who knew the difference between a front-end-loader, a grader, and a dump-truck.
As Leach told the Pique’s Holly Fraughton, of her rhyming counting book for children, Mountain Machines: “I wrote it when my son was two and he was completely obsessed (with machines). It was right at the start of all the construction on the highway, so we’d drive down the highway and he’d just start getting cranky as we hit the construction.”
To keep him happy and entertained, Leach would spend the next half-hour of the drive pointing out and naming the machinery they drove past, which turned out to be a learning experience for both the child and the parent.
“All of a sudden I knew all these machines – I used to think they were all just tractors!” she said with a laugh.
The book is full of rhyming text about groomers, pipe dragons, gondolas and other ski hill machinery that is all too familiar in Whistler. The text is accompanied by colourful, cartoony illustrations by California-based artist, Steven Corvelo. “Steven’s illustrations are amazing, I’m so pleased with them and the kids love them. I read it to about four or five classes at school now and honestly, I could be speaking German – they’re not actually listening to what the words are, they’re laughing themselves silly!”
Steven Corvelo and Sara Leach at the Whistler launch of Mountain Machines, a rhyming counting picture book
bc ferries, book banning, harbour publishing, naked, nudity, only in whistler, ski bums, stephen vogler, streaking, whistler answer, whistler nudity
In Uncategorized on October 31, 2009 at 6:12 pm
My friend Molly had a bath and then went running through the house, trailing suds and puddles, yelling, “I’m naked! I’m naked!”, exhilerated to be at that meeting point of the naughty and the natural. She was only 3.
Stephen Vogler’s equally exhilerating ride through Whistler’s underbelly, Only in Whistler, also got the ‘too naughty’ nod this week, with BC Ferries admitting that the cover was not family friendly enough for them to stock it.
Stephen Vogler has always been an anti-establishment kind of guy. Not in a lock-up-your-children kind of way… more of a ooh-he-just-asked-a-question-that-is-making-the-gentry-here-squirm-in-their-starched-pants. After all, the man drives a converted school bus with enough letters peeled away to dub it the “C OOL BUS”, has his own soapbox, and was vocal in protesting the “deforestation’ of the lot that will now house the Celebration/Medals Plaza in Whistler.
That unique and uncensored voice (in the face of vigilant cops with video cameras) is the reason Harbour Publishing chose him to pen two books about Whistler. After all BC Ferries’ concern about the naughtiness of bare bums strikes at the heart of an age-old tension in Whistler – between the free spirited and the straighter-laced, the boho-ski-bum and the investor, the early squatter and the indignant member of the “Alta Lake Ratepayers Assocation” who kept having their toilet paper nicked by freeloading ferals. (And that was in the days before Costco.)
Enter the Olympics (TM) painting another layer of whitewash on the community, and the question arises: Will the RMOW be enacting a by-law to prevent streaking? Why not celebrate Whistler’s proud history of nudity? It doesn’t cost a thing.
jake reynolds chicken or eagle, mountain machines, sara leach
In creative writing, vicious circle, whistler on October 8, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Whistler author Sara Leach is launching TWO books for children – positioning herself as the Queen of Multi-Tasking – on Friday, October 23, at 7pm at the Adele Campbell Fine Art Gallery in the Hilton.
Juggle wine and cheese and celebrate her publishing debut, with Jake Reynolds: Chicken or Eagle? and Mountain Machines. Though Leach has been influencing young minds for years, in her role as elementary school teahcer, mother and teacher-librarian, she’s taking that to a whole new level, as author of books for young readers. Books will be available for purchase at the event, and are also on sale at Armchair Books.
100 mile literature, donna jane dan, self-publishing, stu mccnolty, the snot monster
In writing on October 5, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Stu McNolty and Mount Currie artist Donna Jane Dan have collaborated on a new kid’s book, The Snot Monster.
Written in Pemberton, illustrated in Mount Currie and published in Squamish, it’s the first 100 Mile Literature project to come from the corridor.
McNolty joins several local writers who have turned their talents to kids’ books, including Tracy Higgs (The Alphabet Goes to Ski and Snowboard School), Katherine Fawcett (MushKid) and Sara Leach’s forthcoming Mountain Machines.
The Snot Monster tells the tale of (what else?) a monster who lives in a weeping willow tree and does particularly gooey things to children.
Currently, the book is available locally at Pemberton’s Frontier Street Pharmacy as well as from McNolty himself through grandpastalltales@gmail.com.
