Diamond Willow Nominee

Terror At Turtle Mountain

By Penny Draper.

Coteau Books, 2006.
ISBN 9781550503432

Currently2.96610169492/5 Stars
1
2
3
4
5

Rated by: 413 users

Click on the stars above to rate this book

Add a Comment

Natalie lives in a mining town of Frank in 1903. Turtle Mountain, where the townspeople seek their living, breaks way and hurls tons and tons of rocks and mud down its side onto the town. Natalie's friends are buried under all of this rubble. This young girl works endlessly digging through tons of rocks to find buried people. She also stops a train before it speeds into the valley and comforts survivors. This is a fictional story based on the true event of the Frank Slide.

About the Author

Penny Draper is from Victoria, BC

Penny Draper is an author, a bookseller, and a storyteller who lives in Victoria, B.C. She was short-listed for the non-fiction prize at the Surrey Writers Festival, and was a runner-up in the Four Hour Children's Book Writing Competition in Prince George. Originally from Toronto, Penny Draper has lived in Switzerland, New Zealand, and Prince George, before moving to Victoria in 1989. Terror at Turtle Mountain is her first book publication.

Book Reviews

CM Magazine
ForeWord Magazine

Suggested Activities

Find a book of legends from the Blackfoot Nation. Your teacher-librarian could help you. Read a legend and then tell it to the rest of the class. If you don't like oral speaking illustrate the legend, or write it down in your own words.
Look up other mining disasters in Canadian history and plot them on a map of Canada along with the places they happened and the number of people who were killed.
We have several coal mines in Saskatchewan. Find one on the Internet. Develop questions to send to the contact person. It may also be possible to invite someone from the mine to your classroom.

The author suggests the following activities.

To learn more about the Blackfoot people visit "Niitsitapiisini: Our Way of Life." This is an interactive site that explores the Blackfoot culture of the past and present.
For examples of turn of the century games and how to play them visit this website.
To find out more about rockslides visit the "School of Rock" at Canadian Children's Atlas Online for slide, shows, video games and quizzes about the rocks that make up Earth.
This is a website of the Virtual Museum of Canada. If you scroll down to "The Adventure Train" you can start traveling the country by rail.
Test your mining know-how or try out a miner's maze at this website.

The 2007 Willow Awards