Feature Article June 19,2003
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Shooting Hoops & Skating Loops:Award nominated Mountain Grove author ar St.James MajorOn Thursday June 12, the senior students at St. James Major school had the opportunity to meet Kaitlin Rainey, a local author from Mountain Grove whose book Shooting Hoops and Skating Loops: Great Inventions in Sports, has been nominated for the Hackmatack Childrens Choice Book Award in the non-fiction category.
Ms. Rainey spoke to the students about how she and co-author Alannah Hegedus began writing the book because they had noticed a lack of solid, educational, books for students and children to use when researching Canadians and their inventions. They found there were books for adults, but nothing that was both engaging and informative for younger readers. And so, seeing a need, the two began to research and to write.
Shooting Hoops and Skating Loops increases the readers awareness of Canadian inventors while being thoroughly enjoyable as well. The book is full of human interest stories as well as facts, and is an excellent resource for student projects and papers. The students at St. James were absorbed for over an hour as Ms. Rainey spoke about the writing process and told them about the invention of things such as snow snakes and snowmobiles, just two of the fascinating topics covered in the book.
Shooting Hoops and Skating Loops is the first book in a series on Canadian inventors and what they have accomplished. A second book by Ms. Rainey and Ms. Hegedus, which covers inventions in communications, is also available, and a third book is in production. All are published by Tundra Books and are available at several major book retailers as well as on-line.
The Hackmatack Award, which is similar in design to Ontarios Silver Birch Award, is a program for children in Atlantic Canada. It was established with young readers in mind to help promote literacy and appreciation of Canadian writing in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and P.E.I. Ms. Rainey is currently on a reading tour in Atlantic Canada and will attend the Hackmatack Award ceremony at St. Francis Xavier University on June 19. Best of luck to her and Ms. Hegedus, and congratulations on their nomination.
