While perusing a BC Ferries gift shop six years ago, Laurie Cassie discovered On Mountaintop Rock, a novel written by former Jasperite John McLay.
The novel, loosely based on the author's youth, is a mystery set in Jasper National Park in 1954.
After reading just two chapters, Cassie, an elementary school teacher from East Vancouver, knew she had found something special. After a few more chapters, she realized the book was a perfect teaching tool.
So, after years of percolating and planning, Cassie and her teaching partner Sharon Moy formed an entire year’s worth of curriculum based the novel, which they taught to their Grade 6 and 7 students this year.
“We had the novel as the core and then all of the sub-topics that come to life in the novel alongside it, because the kids are introduced to Sherlock Holmes, the story of the Canadian railway, the story of the railway hotels, Alzheimer’s disease, as one of the elderly aunts in the story is struggling with Alzheimer’s, they’re introduced to all of these other sub-topics that require teaching.”
The year of teaching culminated with a trip to Jasper last week. Cassie, Moy, and a few parents brought 58 students to see the sights described in the book and to spend time with the author himself.
“This is an adventure of a lifetime for them,” said Cassie of her “super urban children, who spend a lot of their time in their vehicles going back and forth to Metrotown.
“I think some of them are in awe right now of the majestic scenery that’s around them and at the opportunity to take a train ride.”
The students travelled to Jasper with VIA Rail and laid their heads at the Palisades Stewardship Education Centre. Cassie said she was blown away by the Parks Canada staff at the centre, all of whom went out of their way to read the book before the students arrived, so they could point out important places from the story.
During their week-long stay, the students visited Old Fort Point, Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives, the Anglican Church, Chaba Theatre, Maligne Canyon, Lake Edith, Pyramid Lake and Miette Hot Springs, among other locations.
They also put on skits from the novel at the Palisades Centre and displayed poster boards with projects based on the novel at the Information Centre.
McLay, whose book was published in 2001, said having his work picked up as a teaching tool is “absolutely thrilling.
“And, to be honest with you, this teacher, Laurie [Cassie], interpreted the book exactly how I imagined it. You can’t ask for much more luck with a book than has happened with this teacher and this school.”
McLay now lives in Edmonton, but he has travelled to Vancouver and last week to Jasper to assist in the teaching of his novel.
When he arrived in Vancouver earlier in the school year, he said he was surprised to find shoebox dioramas of scenes from the book. But he was even more surprised at which scene was the most popular.
“There’s a scene where Fraser takes the two kids fishing and they fall asleep and when they wake up, the little boy Edward is having a dream and he can hear splashing in the water, like a fountain in a lovely back garden and when he wakes up, there’s Fraser peeing off the side of the boat.
“Well, all of these shoebox dioramas, there must have been 20 of them, but half of them must have been Fraser peeing over the side of the boat,” said McLay with a hearty laugh.
The students returned home to Vancouver June 18.
