Book Reviews
"4 Stars and highly recommended." Manitoba Library Association review of Lunch Bag Chronicles, April 2011.
Radio review of Where The Rivers Meet with Nikki Tate, award-winning author. Canadian Broadcast Company, 2010. "Recommended." Manitoba Library Association review of Ms. Flint Meets the Great Kweskin, June 2008. "Recommended." Manitoba Library Association review of The Meanest Teacher in the World, June 2008. "This is a very powerful book about a group of Native kids." CBC review of Where the Rivers Meet, November 1989. "I definitely recommend this book to any reader." Nicholas Mauws review, Running, 2011. |
“I thoroughly enjoyed both [of Don Sawyer's adult mystery] books. One night I stayed up to 2:30 in the morning, which is way past my bedtime, just to see who did it. They are both real page turners! You are going to attract people with these who don’t normally buy books, as well as appeal to young adults and adult learners. I can see why students scoop them up! Even though they are darned good detective stories with believable characters and situations, they manage to stay light. They are just plain fun to read.”
- Tom Wayman
Winner of the Canadian Authors’ Association medal for poetry, the A.J.M. Smith Prize for distinguished achievement in Canadian poetry, and first prize in the USA Bicentennial Poetry Awards competition.
- Tom Wayman
Winner of the Canadian Authors’ Association medal for poetry, the A.J.M. Smith Prize for distinguished achievement in Canadian poetry, and first prize in the USA Bicentennial Poetry Awards competition.
“You truly inspired me with your enthusiasm for teaching. You overcame each challenge through growth and a commitment to the whole student. You demonstrated how learning can be both interesting and exciting. I hope to take all I have learned from your book and apply it in my next teaching term. I want to thank you for restoring my hope in the teaching profession.”
- Lakehead University student teacher, written to Don Sawyer |
Tomorrow Is School (and I Am Sick to the Heart Thinking About It)
“I am so glad this classic book is back in print; I’ve been recommending it for years. It is a fine chronicle of learning to teach, a meditation on the process of learning, a depiction of the ways school and community intersect, and a very good read. The book is fresh, relevant, and engaging, and new and seasoned teachers alike will be drawn into it and moved to thought by it.” - Mike Rose, Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education; author of Lives on the Boundary and Possible Lives |
“[Where the Rivers Meet] is a well-written story helps us all understand the frustrations and pain, the spiritual strength and the hope, of Native young people today…Highly recommended for young people and educators.”
- CASNP Resource Reading List |
NEW! BC Bookworld, July 2016: A little-heralded classic -- Douglas Coupland’s Generation X is a classic adult fiction title from B.C., so what’s an equivalent for young adult B.C. fiction? We vote for Don Sawyer’s Where the Rivers Meet, now into its tenth printing. First published by Pemmican Publications back in 1988, Don Sawyer’s Where the Rivers Meet is perhaps the first Canadian book for young readers that realistically portrays racial prejudice and teen suicide in a First Nations community. (Read full article: bcbooklook.com/2016/07/08/a-little-heralded-classic-from-lytton/)