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Julie is a former member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers


SOME BOOKS by
Julie H. Ferguson

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Last updated on
Monday January 11, 2010

"Strongly recommended for middle school and up."

Selected for Books for Everybody, Fall 2009

Blog for teen readers www.jamesdouglasofbc.blogspot.com

 JAMES DOUGLAS:
FATHER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

by Julie H. Ferguson

Foreword by Stephen Hume

Written especially for 15 to 18 year olds, this is a story of high adventure and incredible success set in pre-Confederation Canada. James Douglas’s biography weaves through the heart of Canadian and Pacific Northwest history when BC was a wild land, Vancouver did not exist, and Victoria was a muddy village.

Part-Black and illegitimate, 15 year-old James Douglas sailed alone from Scotland to join the fur trade. As a lowly clerk, he endured isolation as he learned the business on the extreme edges of the frontier. With roads non-existent, Douglas travelled thousands of miles each year using the rivers and lakes as his highways. He paddled canoes, drove dogsleds, rode horses, and snowshoed to his destinations. 

Later he became a hard-nosed fur trader, married a part-Cree wife, was accused of murder, and nearly provoked a war over the San Juan Islands. When he was in his prime, he established Victoria and secured the western region of British North America against land grabs by the Russian Empire to the north and the expansionist Americans to the south.

Douglas stickhandled the frenzied Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes and carved the first roads into the Interior. He nagged the British government to establish the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia and became governor of both. Douglas's vision laid the foundation for Canada’s Pacific province 150 years ago.

Discover how the Father of BC, a self-made man of talent and fierce determination, achieved the legacy we celebrate in this fast-paced book that reads like fiction.

ISBN:    978-1554884094  (Illustrated, chronology, bibliography, index, 192 pages)
PRICE: Canada - approx. $19.99 (paperback)

Some reviews

And this book, by Port Moody writer Julie H. Ferguson, will serve as a fine introduction to the story of Douglas, an illegitimate boy from the West Indies who did well for himself, running the western part of British North America on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company and later Queen Victoria.
Excerpt from The Victoria Times Colonist, January 2010. See full review here.

James Douglas: Father of British Columbia joins the excellent Canadian biography series developed through Dundurn Press and provides a valuable and engaging addition to the historical literature available to the school curriculum, from middle school onward. Its contribution lies in several aspects: in its very balanced historicity (it doesn't presuppose any inevitable of foreseen progress to the present, but rather looks at each period in its own terms and within its own perspective); and in its equal emphasis on the personal and human dimension of the events and circumstances....
Fortunately for us, Douglas was a relentless journal keeper and a faithful correspondent, and the author makes excellent use of those very readable sources in bringing events closer to reality. Similarly useful is the use of simulated dialogue, often very effective in giving events a human immediacy. The book is well illustrated and offers a useful bibliography and time chart – comparing incidents within the story to simultaneous events taking place elsewhere in Canada and other parts of the world.
...a first rate biography and thematic history. Strongly recommended for middle school and up.  Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association
Excerpt from the Canadian Review of Materials Magazine, University of Manitoba, December 2009. See full review here

James Douglas: Father of British Columbia is an excellent book for anyone looking for a highly readable, fast-paced and entertaining account of one of the most important figures in British Columbia's history. I came away from this book with a clear picture of Douglas and his times and a vastly greater appreciation for life and the political challenges in the early days of our province. I only hope Ferguson writes more books like this one. Highly recommended. Joyce Gram, writer and editor, December 2009

Julie Ferguson makes history come alive. It is like opening a time capsule and following prominent events of the time through the vivid portrayal of James Douglas’s life and his influential hand in transforming colony to province.  ...it should be a part of B.C.’s school curriculum. Irene Butler, travel writer, November 2009

Julie Ferguson's gripping story about James Douglas is thoroughly researched and well written. It is peppered with fascinating details about Douglas's passion for early Canada and British Columbia's west in particular. Gloria Barkley, writer and poet, November 2009

 

Schools and libraries may order from

UTP Distribution
Tel: 416-667-7791, 1-800-565-9523
Fax: 416-667-7832, 1-800-221-9985
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca

 Teachers - your students can interact with the author at www.jamesdouglasofbc.blogspot.com

Individuals - order from your bookseller or click below

 

Julie H. Ferguson is the author of Sing a New Song: Portraits of Canada’s Crusading Bishops (2006), Through a Canadian Periscope: The Story of the Canadian Submarine Service (1995), and twelve other books. She is a well-known speaker who also leads creative writing workshops for teachers and their students in western Canada. Julie has lived in BC for 40 years.
Read her bio and invite her to your school here.

PUBLISHER:   The Dundurn Group, #500-3 Church Street, Toronto, ON, M5E 1M2
            P: 416.214.5544
            F: 416.214.5556
            E: info@dundurn.com
                 www.dundurn.com/james_douglas
 

AUTHOR:               P: 604.469.1319
             F: 604.469.1316
             E: jhferguson@beaconlit.com
                 www.beaconlit.com