Flood book helps explain disaster to kids
Each of us in a sense had his or her own flood ...
AUTHOR RONA ALTROWS
Initially, it was published to raise funds for flood relief and give Mayor Naheed Nenshi something new to read for a cute photo op during a special storytime for children at Pages on Kensington.
But children’s chapbook The River Throws a Tantrum, written by local author Rona Altrows and published by Pages, has become so popular it will soon be stocked at Chapters throughout the city and into southern Alberta. In its third print run, there are now 1,000 copies out there and even talk of the book being used in some Calgary schools to help children understand June’s devastating flooding.
“I don’t know whether an indie bookstore has published a book and then sold it to a chain before,” says Simone Lee, co-owner of Pages. “We do what we have to do and what we think is right.”
Lee says Pages became a publisher out of necessity. In late July, Nenshi had come to the store and other Kensington businesses to promote the YYC is Open campaign.
He said he would like to participate in Pages’ weekly Wednesday morning story time for children, which was less than a week away.
“I thought we should really do something special,” Lee says. “He was being so generous to us because of the flood. And I actually thought I was going to have to write something myself — a little chapbook I could write myself and photocopy and hand out to the kids who came to our storytime.”
But Lee soon discovered that Altrows, whose previous books include the W.O. Mitchell Award-winning book of short stories Run on Hose, had already written a manuscript. It was inspired by something her four-year-old grandson Oliver said while he was being evacuated from his home.
When the young boy found out his family was required to put an X on the door to let police know they were out of their home and safe, he asked if they could put an O on the door when they returned.
“That stayed with me,” Altrows said. “And also, he stayed with me for a few days. So I’m sure I was influenced by that but I just got visited by this kid in my head. I felt I had to set aside other projects to work on it. I didn’t have any set goal, I just wanted to get a good story out of it.”
It tells the tale of Owen, a five-year-old boy whose game of tic-tac-toe is interrupted by a firefighter who says the family must leave because the river is “throwing a tantrum.”
The story continues with little Owen making observations while at his aunt’s home watching the drama unfold on TV, including that the mayor “hasn’t had a nap since forever” and that the family’s townhouse is “in a big brown lake.”
Nenshi would help sell the tale with a spirited reading in late July during storytime. But getting the book ready to publish in only a few days was not easy.
Lee found an illustrator — Sarah-Joy Geddes — and an editor. The story was cut down to chapbook size, illustrations were put to the tale and the books were picked up at the printer an hour before Nenshi was scheduled to recite the tale to wide-eyed kids at Pages.
Word spread about the book. It has been on the Herald’s bestseller list since early August. School librarians and at least one adviser to the Calgary school boards have come to Pages and picked up copies in hopes of using them to in schools in Calgary and High River.
“We thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is much bigger than we are,’” says Lee. “We tried to get publishers interested and they just didn’t think they could turn it around in the timeline. So I thought ‘Well, I can print 500 more copies.’”
She also called Chapters, who agreed to put it on shelves. They should be in stores this weekend.
For Altrows, the possibility of it being shared with students and used as a teaching tool is both poignant and exciting to her. She is also hoping to find a publisher to put out the full version of the story.
“While this is a collective experience, each of us in a sense had his or her own flood,” says Altrows. “Despite the fact that kids are back in school and we all want to get on with things, I think there are still questions about displacement, about flooding and about how you feel when something comes at you from behind that you’re not expecting and everything changes all of a sudden. So I think the fact that it might be used as that kind of tool, I find it very gratifying.”