• Age: 6 to 10
• Grade: 2 to 7
• Reading age: 6 to 12

How is plywood made? What are dozer boats? How has forestry changed in the last century? These questions and dozens more are answered in Forestry A-Z, both in the informative and fascinating text and in the beautiful photographs.

Ann is a long time Williams Lake, British Columbia resident who has taught both in elementary schools and at the college level. She is the author of seven novels for young readers, most of them set in Barkerville during the gold rush. Her first book, Your Time, My Time was published twenty-two years ago and has been in print continuously since then. As well, Ann is the author of a book of poetry and the editor of three collections of short stories for young people. She also writes for adult readers, and her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world. In Canada her work has been published in Canadian Living, Arts Forum (Ontario) and elsewhere, as well as being heard on CBC radio. Ann serves on the executive of several professional writers' organizations, both in British Columbia and Canada-wide.

Her books have been nominated for major Canadian book prizes and all of them have been selected as "Our Choice" titles by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Ann is a popular workshop presenter at conferences for writers (Grades 5 to Adult) and is in demand as a speaker, both in schools and at literary festivals. She loves traveling, and is willing to gear her presentations to the needs and requests of a particular school or classroom. Her sessions are fast paced and entertaining, as well as informative. As one teacher commented after Ann had visited her school "She made history come alive."

More about Ann can be found at the CWILL BC website, http://www.cwill.bc.ca/public/search/member_detail/62.

Ann Walsh's profile page

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Kathleen's primary rural experiences in her childhood were family fishing trips and long evening walks with her dad and their dog on the golf course. After graduating from high school, she completed three years of university, including one year in Madrid, Spain.

Her first full-time rural experience came after she married Mark Waldron. They spent their first year together working for VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) in the Napa Valley in California helping a group of eighteen families get set up to build their own homes. She and Mark then moved back to Colorado to complete their degrees (BA for Mark, MA for Kathleen) and begin their family.

In the spring of 1975, they set off with their one-year-old son Levi to begin building their own log home off the grid in central British Columbia. They immigrated to Canada the following year, welcomed their daughter Rosy the year after that, and have lived in the Cariboo ever since. They still make frequent city trips where Kathleen enjoys visits to concerts, plays, museums, professional sporting events, and her otherwise all-urban family. Her rural pleasures include swimming in mountain lakes, canoeing, cycling, cross-country skiing, and hiking. The Waldrons became dual Canadian/US citizens in 1991.

Kathleen's work experience includes being a swimming instructor, playground supervisor, lifeguard, waitress, chambermaid, tree planter, house painter, teacher (kindergarten-adult), and of course, writer.

Kathleen Cook Waldron's profile page

Bob Warick's profile page

• Commended, CCBC Best Books

"The authors have approached the business side of trees through an informational alphabet book...The book is a good starting point for a classroom discussion or project, and a good balanced presentation for the young reader who comes to the book on his own."

Canadian Children's Book News

"Clear, well laid out, offers useful information and has an attractive format."

Deakin Newsletter

"A worthwhile addition to school and public library non-fiction collections."

Quill & Quire

"A welcome book for school libraries."

Resource Links

"Beautifully photographed...The information is solid and the language is clear."

School Library Journal

"This is a beautifully photographed and designed introduction to forestry...A nice addition to a survey of various careers."

Tucson Unified School District

"Recommended."

CM Magazine

Forestry A-Z

This lavishly illustrated alphabet book looks at the modern forest industry. From insects to nursery trees, log booms to woodlots, millwrights to tree planters, the authors give an overview of the industry that shapes so many of our communities. One or two paragraphs per page elaborate on the alphabetical heading and illustration. Inset photographs enhance the primary one. Fast Forestry Facts at the end give additional information.

Forestry A-Z

If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear? This informative and fascinating look at modern forestry from A to Z is brought to life with both colour and black-and-white photographs. A section called “Fast Forestry Facts” appears at the end of the book.