Fans of Canada’s founding prime minister can now purchase True North’s first children’s book, “A Day with Sir John A.” written by Lindsay Shepherd and illustrated by Tatsiana Gubich, just in time for Christmas.
The book follows a young boy named Emerson on a field trip to the “Museum of Canada’s First Prime Minister”. Emerson finds himself the odd one out as everyone on the field trip, including the museum tour guide, is keen on perpetuating a narrative which demonizes Sir John A. Macdonald, portraying him in a negative light.
In a blend of fiction and nonfiction, readers will follow Emerson’s educational journey alongside the Father of Confederation as he teaches the boy about his legacy of spirit, vision, and progress.
The book comes after years of decolonization activism, which has led to statues of Canada’s founders being vandalized, new monuments being cancelled, and exhibits of Macdonald being marred with labelling the man as “the super evil of all evils.”
Shepherd, the book’s author, told True North in an interview what drove her to present an alternative perspective to the culture of demonization of Canada’s founders and past leaders for children.
“For many years now, there’s been this trend of decolonizing, indigenizing, and reconciling, and you may think that those are worthy goals and they need to be done in Canadian society, but for a lot of people, those goals have become synonymous with erasing history and demonizing important public figures from the past,” Shepherd said.
She said she wrote the book to hopefully teach children that ignoring the positive contributions of figures such as Macdonald “isn’t the right way to go.”
“It’s about learning history without demonizing and without that quick, reactive thinking to call someone a bad person who just did bad things, and learning that it’s more complex than that,” she said.
Shepherd said she tried to find an illustrated children’s book with the father of the Confederation as its main focus.
“You would think that there would be tons of children’s books about Sir John A Macdonald, but there aren’t actually,” she said.
Shepherd is a mother of two children herself. In the last few years, she has encountered many woke-centred books, but not many that celebrate the positive contributions of Canada’s history.
“I spend a lot of time at the library and bookstores, and for many years now, the displays that those libraries and bookstores have are featuring books like ‘anti-racist babies,’ ‘Me and My Three Dads, and “The Boy Who Feels like a Girl,” she said.
“So those are the kinds of books that they’re often pushing front and center. And I’m not someone who just wants to sit back and complain about what’s going on. I thought, Well, why don’t I offer something else?”
She said she thought True North could offer something else: a fun book with vivid illustrations that is actually designed with kids in mind. It appreciates Canada’s history and doesn’t “jump to demonizing public figures from the past.”
“It was a really fun process to write this book. And I think the parents out there will know that when you have a child, they start picking out books,” Shepherd said. “You actually learn a lot from children’s books.”
She said her son used to take out books about dinosaurs and has moved on to books on Legos, and she’s learned a lot about those two subjects she would never seek out on her own.
“Parents will also have an opportunity to learn and refresh their memories of what they might have forgotten from school,” she said. “And we do have a note for parents at the back of the book that offers a summary of who Sir John A Macdonald was, so hopefully, it’s also educational for parents.”
“A Day with Sir John A” was published on Amazon on Thursday and is available for Kindle and Paperback.