Sunday, August 21, Paddle-to-the-Sea

Some books have a strong impact on a child’s imagination. Of those, there are a few that continue to resonate throughout one’s life. Those are the ones which one remembers most fondly, and which surprise us as adults when we see them again. Suddenly we are awash in memories of how excited we were during the reading, and how much it meant to us at that time. One such classic book, and the classic film inspired by the book, is Paddle-to-the-Sea.


I discovered the book at the Brodie Library as a child and remember poring over the luminous and dramatic illustrations and also recall watching the movie at St.Peter’s school. I travelled with the little canoe on its journey as if I were the one paddling from Nipigon and heading for the open sea. I worried when the carved man and his canoe were scooped up by the fishing net, and I felt sad when Paddle was almost lost among the garbage left in the water by an industrial site. I celebrated with him when he navigated the Soo locks and when he finally reached the Atlantic Ocean. I am far from alone in this – ask any group of adults who may have encountered the book by Holling C. Holling or the National Film Board film by Bill Mason and I guarantee the memory will be vivid and bring a smile to their face. It is that type of a story.


The book and film tell the story about a carving of a man in a canoe which was made by an Aboriginal boy who sets it down on a frozen stream in the Nipigon area to await the thaw which launches the canoe on its long voyage from Lake Superior to the sea.
Source: www.nfb.ca


The book was a Caldecott Award winner in 1942 and has never been out-of-print since it was first published in 1941.
Source: Children’s Literature Review Vol. 50

The film was shot by Bill Mason who meticulously reproduced the trek made by Paddle-to-the-Sea in the book. It was originally intended for the educational market, but eventually was blown to 35mm size and shown in theatres. This led to an Oscar nomination for best short subject in 1968.
Source: www.imdb.com


Bill Mason was known as the “patron saint of canoeing” and in addition to Paddle-to-the-Sea, he made many instructional films which were the introduction to technique and the canoeing experience for thousands of Canadians.
Source: Fire in the Bones, Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition by James Raffan


Holling C. Holling both wrote and illustrated the book Paddle-to-the-Sea and virtually invented the technique of blending non-fiction and fiction writing for children. “The action part of my stories is fabricated he said, but I have always tried to make the atmosphere surrounding them authentic”.
Source: Horn Book magazine Vol. XVII, no 5, September, 1941


From his time spent living with native people of various nations, the author learned a lot about their way of life and way of looking at the environment. One key thing he learned played a big role in Paddle-to-the-Sea. He learned the method of teaching about geographic features by drawing sketches to outline them in a familiar, natural form. Thus, the Great Lakes drainage system became bowls atop a hill, and Lake Superior became a wolf’s head. I have always since seen our lake as a wolf’s head without remembering where I first encountered that image until I reread Paddle-to-the-Sea.
Source: “The Teachings of Paddle-to-the-Sea” in Learning, Vol. 5, January, 1977


There is a Paddle-to-the-Sea Park in Nipigon, Ontario. It consists of twelve playground stations which lead children, through play, from the waterfall which represents Lake Superior through all the other key sites mentioned in the book and now reproduced throughout the town.
Source: www.nipigon.net


Both the wonderful book and the NFB film can be found and borrowed from your Thunder Bay Public Library. Why not revisit these classics or introduce another generation to this compelling adventure which begins right here – in “Nipigon of all places” (as the tv commercial used to say).

Angela Meady, Head of Children’s & Youth Services