Debut novel puts children’s author on the map

When Gwen Smid finally decided to write her first children’s book, she let her imagination run wild.

Among the many unusual things the title character encounters in Mary’s Atlas: Mary Meets Manitoba are a flying bison, a talking sturgeon and a jig-dancing Golden Boy.

Illustrated by local artist Sonia Nadeau, the book follows Mary in a cross-province adventure after she taps her magical atlas three times and opens it up to a map of Manitoba.

Mary meets a bison named Bou, who helps her as she tries to find the Golden Boy’s missing torch, which was stolen by the villainous North Wind.

The idea for the story came to Smid, a Scotia Heights resident, one summer when her husband, Borden, worked for Parks Canada in national parks across the Rockies.

“I would go to every single interpretive centre, and I never found a fun little adventure story about a park or the province,” Smid said. “I thought I could do that about Manitoba, and I did.”

Published by the locally-based Peanut Butter Press, the colourful book has been on shelves since March and is available in hardcover and softcover editions.

While the book may be long on fantasy, it is also filled with facts about Manitoba’s history and geography that are presented in an easily digestible format at the bottom of many pages.

“My first vision was that I thought it would be neat to have some educational components to the story,” said Smid, who teaches English, history and geography at Kildonan-East Collegiate.

“Having the little facts was a way to add information without taking away from the story.”

The book is written at a Grade 2 level, which is no coincidence, as the facts are part of the province’s Grade 2 social studies curriculum. Mary’s Atlas has been submitted to the Manitoba Text Book Bureau, so it can be used in classrooms beginning next school year.

Smid met Nadeau at a conference on writing for children and took her business card. The collaboration between author and illustrator couldn’t have worked out better, Smid said.

“I sketched what I thought Mary should look like,” she recalled. “Sonia had sketched five or six versions and showed me one, and it was almost identical.”

Smid is already working on a second installment of the series, with Mary visiting Alberta. She’s hopeful that Nadeau will be able to illustrate it as well.

Mary’s Atlas will be officially launched at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Polo Park location on May 20 at 7 p.m.

Smid will read from the book, talk about the process of writing it and answer questions.