A beautiful gift edition of four of Teddy Jam's best-loved stories

Four of Teddy Jam's best-loved stories about the men and women who lived in and transformed Canada in the last century are collected in this handsome volume illustrated by Ange Zhang.

Each story recaptures a time now past and a way of life now lost but vividly remembered -- the drama and devastation of a huge forest fire in a lumbering community, a glorious summer spent with fishermen on the Atlantic coast, the ups and downs of clearing the land in a farming community in the twenties, and the thrill of watching a hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens while sitting next to a man who helped to build the historic arena.

How We Were includes "The Year of Fire," "The Fishing Summer," "The Stoneboat" and "The Kid Line."

Fully illustrated throughout, this is a great first chapter book or read-aloud selection.

Teddy Jam (Matt Cohen) was the pseudonymous author of many wonderful children's books, including Night Cars (which Michele Landsberg called "the Canadian Goodnight Moon"), This New Baby, and The Year of Fire, The Stoneboat, The Kid Line and The Fishing Summer, now collected in the anthology How We Were. He was also a novelist who won the Governor General's Award for his last novel, Elizabeth and After.

Teddy Jam's profile page

ANGE ZHANG has illustrated many books for Groundwood, most notably his memoir of growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Red Land, Yellow River, which won the Bologna Ragazzi Award. A former designer for the National Opera Theater in Beijing, he now works as an animation artist. He lives in Toronto.

Ange Zhang's profile page

This collection of four previously published books brings to mind the bromide about the sum being greater than its parts. Each of these stories, embellished by Ange Zhang's jewel-like oils, was not ungem-like itself: beautifully constructed paragons of the genre...These are stories that artfully plumb the depths of situation and character.

Globe and Mail