The Girl Who Loved Giraffes by Kathy Stinson

Anne Innis's love of giraffes began with a trip to her local zoo when she was a young girl. Anne was the daughter of Harold Innis who was a professor and Mary Quayle Innis who was a writer. The giraffes so intrigued Anne that she wanted to know all about these unusual animals.

Since she loved reading about animals, Anne set out to find books about giraffes but there weren't any. However in an encyclopedia, Anne learned that giraffes live only in the grasslands and woods of Africa. She was determined to go to Africa to study them. That meant working hard and saving.

Anne saved her allowance and eventually got a summer job. She studied biology at university and earned a gold medal and prize money. Soon she had enough to travel to Africa. All she needed was a place to stay. Anne wrote to thirteen African wildlife organizations and universities outlining her plans. She was rejected by all of them. Undaunted, Anne wrote another letter, this time signing it A. Innis. This meant that the reader would not know she was a woman. Alexander Matthew wrote back telling Mr. Innis he would be able to stay at his ranch and bunk with the cowhands!

Anne set out on her journey to Africa, travelling by train at Toronto to Montreal where she boarded a ship that took her to London. While in England she wrote to Alexander Matthew signing it Anne Innis. Then she boarded a ship to South Africa. Once in South Africa, Anne still had a thousand miles to travel to the Matthew ranch so she bought herself a car. But before setting out she received a letter from Mr. Matthew explaining that he believed she was a man and that she could not stay at his ranch. But after a letter pleading to be allowed to stay, Matthew relented, offering Anne his daughter's old bedroom. After a struggle to get to the Matthew ranch, Anne settled in and began her dream of observing giraffes. Her time in South Africa led her to make many interesting and new discoveries about giraffes.

Although she achieved her dream of travelling to Africa to study giraffes, Anne encountered many obstacles as she attempted to obtain a university teaching position. But she was turned down because she was a woman. She co-authored a book, The Giraffe and she continued through the years to work to help students learn now to write and do research. More than fifty years after her adventure in Africa, Anne was invited to a first ever conference on giraffes. And when giraffologists became concerned about the declining numbers of giraffes, Anne returned to Africa to learn what was being done to save these unique animals.

Discussion

In The Girl Who Loved Giraffes the story of pioneering Canadian giraffologist Anne Innis Dagg is told. Anne's story has been one of extraordinary accomplishments and surprising obscurity and Stinson portrays all of this in this detailed children's picture book.

Anne Christine was born in 1933 in Toronto, Ontario to Harold Innis a political economy professor at the University of Toronto and to author, Mary Quayle. While on holiday with her family in Chicago, in 1936, she visited the Brookfield Zoo. There, as a three-year-old toddler, she was in awe of the giraffes. After attending the Anglican boarding school, Bishop Strachan, Anne went on to earn a B.A. in Biology in 1955. As the top student, earning a gold medal, she hoped to travel to Africa to begin her study of giraffes. To that end, she began writing officials in Tanzania (then called Tanganyika), Kenya and Uganda without any success.

While pursuing a masters in genetics at the University of Toronto, Anne learned about Alexander Matthew whose land was home to giraffes. She was able to obtain an invitation to come and study them. Matthew did not know Anne was a young woman. In 1956, at the age of twenty-three, using only the money she had saved herself, Anne travelled to South Africa. As Stinson relates in her picture book, Anne did reveal her gender to Mr. Matthew and after pleading with him, he allowed her to stay at his farmhouse.

Anne spent the next six months observing and recording giraffes. Since no one prior to Anne had studied giraffes, she became a world expert as she discovered many interesting things about their behaviour and physiology.  

Anne returned to Southern Ontario, working to earn a Ph.D, which she accomplished at the University of Waterloo in 1967, and to become a teaching professor (to research giraffes in the summer) which she was not able to obtain. In 1967, it was almost impossible for women to obtain a teaching position at a university in Ontario. Anne encountered many rejections, not because she wasn't qualified, but because she was a married woman. So she taught part time and raised her family of three children.

Anne's life story is one example of how stereotypes and barriers based on gender have impacted women's professional and personal lives. Although Anne was able to push back against these barriers to some degree it would be decades before things significantly changed. Nevetheless, it was her determination and resourcefulness that got her to South Africa, a country with its apartheid system. 

Author Kathy Stinson was able to meet and get to know Anne Innis Dagg as she researched for her book.Stinson first encountered Anne Innis Dagg and her remarkable work with giraffes at a film screening in Guelph. The film, "The Woman Who Loves Giraffes" was offered at the Bookshelf Cinema and was followed by Anne speaking as a guest panelist. Stinson knew then that she had to tell Anne's story. Accompanying Stinson's informative text are the rich illustrations of Francois Thisdale.

The Girl Who Loved Giraffes is an inspiring story of determination and resourcefulness. Imagine what Anne might have accomplished had she been allowed to continue her research on giraffes. Her story highlights the personal and professional cost of sexism and racism. But the story of Anne Innis Dagg is also an inspiration to young women everywhere to pursue their dreams, no matter what.

Book Details:

The Girl Who Loved Giraffes: And Became The World's First Giraffologist by Kathy Stinson
Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside     2021
56 pp.

The Lady With the Books by Kathy Stinson

Anneliese and her brother Peter are hungry and wandering the ruined city of Munich. The streets are filled with the chunks of broken pavement and wrecked buildings. When she finds a discarded orange peel on the ground, she gives it to her brother. 

Anneliese spots a long line leading into a building and wonders if they are giving out food. So she and Peter get in line. But inside the great hall are more books than Anneliese could count! She remembers when her Papa used to take her to the library and when he read to her at bedtime. But Papa and the library are now gone.

Peter finds a book about an elephant that is wearing a suit and intrigued he begs Anneliese to read it to him. But she can't read in English. They spend the rest of the day looking at books in the hall until they are the only ones left. They must leave, but the lady in charge tells them they may return tomorrow. 

At home, Mama makes the last bit of cooked barley to Anneliese and Peter. Her mother hopes to trade oma's old teapot for some vegetables. At the market Anneliese is tempted to steal a sausage because she is so hungry. Instead, she and Peter head back to the hall with the books. There they find the lady reading The Story of Ferdinand to a group of children. Although the story is written in English, the lady reads it in German. Afterwards, the lady suggests some books  that both Peter and Anneliese might enjoy. Her suggestions are stories from many different countries.

Returning home, Anneliese finds that her mother has made a delicious stew, thanks to the generosity of the farmer and her lucky find of a pigeon. They now have a stew for two days. That night Anneliese decides she will help to clear the student near the library so that one day it will again be filled with books, just like the lady's with the book's hall.

Discussion

The Lady With The Books tells the story of Jella Lepman, a Jewish woman who returned to Germany during the post-war period to help the country recover from World War II. Jella Lepman was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1891. She attended school in Stuttgart as well as Lausanne, Switzerland. She married Gustave Lepman in 1922 and they had two children, Anne-Marie and Gunther. Gustave served in World War I but died in 1922 from injuries suffered during the war. 

Jella began working as an editor at Stuttgarter Neues Tagblatt after her husband's death. She began writing, publishing a children's book, The Sleeping Sunday in 1927 as well as a play. At this time, Jella also became politically active, joining the German Democratic Party, running unsuccessfully for a seat in the German Reichstag in 1929.

With the rise of Hitler and Nazism in 1933, Jella was no longer able to keep her job at the newspaper because she was Jewish. Eventually, she fled to England in 1936 with her two children. With Germany's defeat in 1945, Jella was asked to return to Germany, working with the United States Army in the American Occupied zone in the capacity of an advisor to determine how to help German children and women.

The Lady with the Books picks up the story of Jella Lepman from this point. Jella eventually founded the International Youth Library in 1949 and was it's director until 1957. She also went on to found the International Board for Young People (IBBY) in 1953. This organization is responsible for literacy in children and young adults.

Stinson has crafted a realistic story that highlights Jella Lepman's humanitarian work to rehabilitate the children of Germany in the postwar period. Many cities in Germany were reduced to rubble, society was fragmented with the widespread destruction and years of war and as always, it was the children and women who suffered the most. Lepman's work was based on the power of literature to heal and change. This was especially important in Germany, a country that had spent the previous twenty-five years labelling certain people as "undesirables". Her travelling exhibition of books featured stories from many different countries. As Stinson notes in the back pages of her picture book, Jella believed "that good children's books from around the world could create 'bridges of understanding' between people..." 

The simple story of a girl and her brother wandering the devastated city streets highlights the struggles in the aftermath of war that children encounter; hunger, poverty, and loss. But it is also a story of hope and redemption, as the main character, a young girl decides to work to help her city recover. The colourful artwork Marie LaFrance, an award-wining Canadian illustrator living in Montreal, Quebec, captures all of these aspects. Her colourful illustrations were rendered in graphite and coloured digitally in Photoshop. The Lady With The Books is ultimately a story of how each person can work to heal the world and make it a better place.

Book Details:

The Lady With The Books by Kathy Stinson
Toronto: Kids Can Press     2020

The Man With The Violin by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Dusan Petricic

"If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that -- then what else are we missing?"

At 7:51am on Friday, January 12, 2007, one of the world's most renowned violinists, Joshua Bell began performing at the L'Enfant Plaza Station in the Washington Metro. Dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a baseball cap, Bell began performing classical music on his priceless violin, a 1713 Huberman Stradivarius.

Bell opened his performance with what is considered one of the most difficult violin pieces to master,  Johann Sebastian Bach's Partitia No. 2 in D minor. His impromptu concert lasted a total of 43 minutes during which over a thousand people passed by him on their way to the trains. Few stopped to listen for any length of time and no one applauded when a piece was finished. Only one person recognized him and one little boy, three year old Evan, wanted to stop and listen but was prevented from doing so by his mother, in a rush to get him to his teacher and then to work.

It is this story that the picture book, The Man With The Violin tells. Little Dylan I(who is based on the real Evan) is someone who notices things. One Friday morning, while rushing with his mother into the subway station, Dylan notices something very unusual. He first hears the music, "...high notes soar to the ceiling....low notes swoop to the floor..."  Dylan asks his mother to wait so he can watch the man with violin, who sways to the music. But instead, he is hurried onto the escalator and down into the subway where the roar of the trains blurrrrrrs out the music. The music stays with Dylan all day and on the way home he asks his mother about the musician in the station. She does not remember. Later that night, the truth about the musician playing in the subway is revealed on the radio.

At the back of the picture book is the information about Joshua Bell, a short piece on the concert in the Washington Metro and a postscript by Bell. Bell writes, "Music require imagination and curiousity -- two things that children have aplenty -- and I believe the world would be a better place if every child's innate appreciation for music were fostered.... Plato is often credited as saying 'Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.'"

Dusan Petricic's illustrations convey the effect music has on the world around us. the sense of movement, the vibrant colours and the rich tones, all characteristics of music. While the world around Dylan is a mixture of greys and blues, the notes of music bring brilliant splashes of colour, and wide, sweeping movement to the world around him.

If you can get past the constant ads, the Washington post article, Pearls Before Breakfast: Can One of the nation's greatest musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?  tells the story of Bell's adventure in the Washington Metro and more tellingly, of how little attention was given to him while he made music. This exercise paints a picture of an urban society so preoccupied it has lost touch with the small treasures of everyday life, a child's wonder, a musical masterpiece, a moment to linger and appreciate. Those passing by were stopped by a reporter outside the station and asked for a phone number so they could be contacted later in the day. Only one person mentioned the violinist when questioned about whether they had encountered anything unusual that morning. Below is a video of Joshua Bell playing the final movement of Bach's Chaconne. Enjoy!




Book Details:
The Man With The Violin by Kathy Stinson
Toronto: Annick Press 2013

What Happened To Ivy by Kathy Stinson

David Burke's eleven year old sister, Ivy, suffers from cerebral palsy and is wheel chair bound. Everything in his family's life revolves around Ivy, who needs round-the-clock care. Things weren't always like this for David's family. His father, who is a Classics professor, used to take him to the museum. At the cottage he went fishing with his dad. 

However, after Ivy began suffering from seizures following surgery at age eight, her deteriorating health has meant that David's life has changed drastically. Ivy now needs diapers and uses a wheelchair. His parents are consumed with all aspects of Ivy's care and she's due for another surgery to correct her spine soon.

All fifteen- year-old David wants is a normal life, where he can do things with his dad, where things don't always revolve around Ivy and maybe where he can even have a girlfriend some day. David begins a friendship with the new girl who's moved in across the street from him only three weeks earlier. Hannah is sweet and seems to like David and she's good with Ivy. David was worried Ivy would drive Hannah away but she seems to enjoy sharing David with Ivy.

When David's parents invite Hannah to come along on the family trip to the cottage David is thrilled. Up at the cottage though, David's father seems very stressed out. One day Hannah and David walk into town to get a few groceries, but when they return they find that Ivy has had an accident while swimming with her dad.

After Ivy's funeral people begin talking about what happened and there are rumours that Ivy's death was not as it seemed. Eventually David is confronted with the awful possibility that Ivy's death may not have been an accident when his father confesses one night to the family that he didn't try to save Ivy. 

Discussion

What Happened To Ivy explores the issue of mercy killing, specifically the killing of the children with disabilities. Initially it is believed that David's sister, Ivy has died as a result of a swimming accident. However, David, along with his family learn that his father did not try to save Ivy but simply allowed her to drown. This revelation by his father is devastating.

In confronting the reality of what has happened, David must work through not only his grief but his feelings of resentment and guilt. While dealing with his grief David discovers he must also deal with his guilt over Ivy. Many times David was resentful towards Ivy and the difficulties her disabilities created. "I loved Ivy, too. But I bet she didn't know it. Besides all the times I didn't speak up for her -- like today, which was nothing compared to sometimes -- there were the times I did worse than not speak up for her." In reflecting on what his father has done, David attempts to reconcile what his father did with the care and comfort he gave Ivy throughout her life. "Last night, was Dad trying to say he did what he did because he loved Ivy? How is that supposed to make sense? I'd sure never try to claim I fed her those worms because I loved her."  

Among the questions David asks himself are, What makes a person's life worth living? And how do we know whether or not that life is a good one? "Or was Ivy's life tougher than I ever let myself believe? How do you weigh crappy stuff like seizures and physio and people hardly ever understanding you, up against giggles and grins and just being happy with birds and pretty flowers and your sunhat and your turquoise bathing suit? How can anyone know whether someone else's life is worth living or not, especially if that someone can't tell you about it?"

David has an interesting discussion with his elderly neighbour, Will, who is now in a nursing home. When David tells Will that his father let Ivy die, Will tells him that he wished he had the courage to "do something for my Vera" implying that the courage is in mercy killing rather than helping that person live better. But later on David questions this approach too. He recognizes that it is likely Ivy would have died eventually, if not in the lake, in the hospital - a place she hated. But he asks whether Ivy deserved to live life on her terms. "But even if it was like that - and maybe it wasn't - did that make it okay for Dad to do what he did? To decide - whatever made him decide - that her life would now end? Sure, she's free of all the crap life handed her. But didn't she deserve more chances to splash in her bath and laugh at Shamus's tricks? To talk to the birds and east orange gummy bears? "

In the end, David doesn't seem to know whether what his father did was right or wrong. When a witness comes forward to say that they saw what happened that day at the lake, David's father is taken in for questioning. So What Happened to Ivy ends with the question of Ivy's death unresolved.

This book attempts to address the thorny issue of mercy killing and does so reasonably well, but leaves the question open for the reader to decide. Predictably it leaves out the important point that there are usually options to murdering a person who is disabled and suffering. While Stinson does tackle the quality of life issue rather well, what is never discussed in the book are the options that might have helped Ivy's family cope with her overwhelming medical problems so that her father might not have considered doing what he did. It seems her family either didn't give this much thought or outright dismissed their options, as evidenced by the brief mention of putting her into a group home, which is immediately rejected by her mother.

This short novel closely parallels the story of Robert Latimer who was convicted of second degree murder in the death of his disabled daughter Tracy. Although Latimer served seven years of a ten year sentence, he maintains that his premeditated act of euthanizing his daughter by carbon monoxide poisoning was an act of love. Latimer was portrayed in the media as a loving father who did not wish to see his daughter continue to suffer. Similarly, David's father is portrayed as a caring father, so much so, that Hannah, whose father has abandoned her, refuses to believe that David's father did anything wrong.

In Canada there have been several recent incidents of mercy killing and not surprisingly, we see the case being made for the euthanizing of the severely disabled, those terminally ill, and the elderly. As the Council of Canadians with Disabilities correctly states, "murder is not mercy".

Book Details:
What Happened To Ivy by Kathy Stinson
Toronto: Second Story Press     2012
146 pp.