Tom Three Persons
- Publisher
- Frontenac House
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2002
- Category
- Canadian, Places, Women Authors
- Recommended Age
- 13
- Recommended Grade
- 8
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780968490389
- Publish Date
- Apr 2002
- List Price
- $14.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Tom Three Persons was created as a one-person oral performance piece by Yvonne Trainer in the early 1990’s. Yvonne’s audiences have variously defined it as a Biography in Verse, a work of Prairie Realism, a Postmodern long poem, a Postcolonial text, and a Multimedia piece. In Yvonne’s own words: “Tom Three Persons stands as symbol for my childhood on the Canadian prairie and the death of that childhood.” Ultimately, on the page, Tom Three Persons reveals the striving to go beyond the self, whatever the situation, toward the advancement of human progress.
About the author
Born at Medicine Hat, Alberta, in 1959, Yvonne Trainer has become one of Canada's most distinctive young poets. A brilliant reader, she has presented her work to many appreciative audiences in the Prairies and Atlantic Canada, while her poems have appeared in a number of leading literary magazines in both Canada and the U.S.A. CBC Anthology broadcast a group of six poems in 1980, when she was still an undergraduate at the University of Lethbridge, editing Whetstone and putting out her chapbook, Manyberries, also in 1980, before moving on to the University of New Brunswick, where she received the M.A. degree in English and Creative Writing.
Librarian Reviews
Tom Three Persons: A Multimedia Poetry Sequence
Poet Yvonne Trainer has created a book that combines history and lore into a poetic biography of Tom Three Persons, a Blood from the Standoff Reserve in Alberta and champion bronco rider at the first Calgary Stampede in 1912. As she points out in her introduction, the poems can be read as a sequence or on their own. These pieces are straightforward in their descriptions; yet contain a strong sense of the poetic—but one that isn’t flowery or pretentious. Some poems could be used to spark creative writing or other interpretive exercises, such as drawings or paintings or collages. The rough-and-ready elements of rodeo in these poems will likely appeal to boys. The text is interspersed with several black and white archival photographs and prints, including pictures of the actual Tom Three Persons.Caution: Prejudice, drinking, gambling and fighting are depicted, though none are glorified.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2008-2009.