(L-R) Clare Butterfly, member of the Central Alberta Historical Society; Emma Guido, illustrator; Mark Collings, CAHS member and initiator of the project; Rondo Wood, Kerry Wood's daughter; and Holly Mayo, illustrator, at the Oriole Park School library on Wednesday holding the four books by Kerry Wood to be adapted. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

Local author

Oriole Park students help create adaptations of Kerry Wood stories in new literacy project

Jan 31, 2024 | 5:46 PM

Oriole Park students are embarking on a new literacy project to adapt the books of Red Deer author Kerry Wood.

On Wednesday, students gathered in the gymnasium to learn about their role in the project, overseen by the Central Alberta Historical Society (CAHS).

The project was initiated by Mark Collings, independent producer and board member for the Society. He says he was inspired while filming his television series in 2022 on the Year of the Garden, where students worked on the Common Ground Garden Project planting vegetables to feed the local community in need. While interviewing teachers in the library, he noticed a keen student interest in reading and learning through the historical displays.

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Also wanting to make a documentary on Kerry Wood, he thought it would be a good opportunity to honor the author while filling the library with more local books.

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“They’re going to be exposed to some history of the province and stories form the province like Kerry Wood. But the more important outcome, I’m thinking of for Oriole Park in particular, is that children will be empowered by this whole process. They’ll realize that they have inspired this project and the publication of these books and it’s their book,” he said.

Today, Red Deerians may know the author from the Kerry Wood Nature Centre (6300 45 Ave.), a year-round destination for environmental education, natural history interpretation, and interactive exhibits.

Edgar Allardyce Wood, better known by his pen name “Kerry” Wood, came to Red Deer in 1918 from New York. An avid lover of nature, he wanted to be a writer to learn about wildlife. Joining the Alberta Historical Society at 12 years of age, he was awarded Alberta’s first naturalist, and dropped out of high school at 16 years old to pursue writing full time. Beginning as a columnist, he later wrote 28 books and pamphlets, 6,200 short stories, 8,000 articles,15 anthologies, and hosted hundreds of radio and television programs, among other things, earning him numerous accolades.

The four books that will be adapted are Mickey the Beaver, Samson’s Long Ride, Birds and Animals in the Rockies, and “Ronnie” from Cowboy Yarns for Young Folk.

Four original copies of the books by Kerry Wood to be adapted. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

While each book contains hundreds of pages, Collings, along with Rondo Wood, Kerry Wood’s eldest daughter, illustrators Emma Guido and Holly Mayo, and CAHS member Clare Butterfly, will shorten them into roughly 16-page books with pictures appealing to students in Grades 1-3.

Guido shared with the students her love of drawing at their age. Now her job, she will be focusing on Birds and Animals in the Rockies for the project.

“I’ll be going through some of the animals and selecting different ones. It is a nonfiction book so my approach to adapting it for kids [is] because I’m going to be introducing a child character for them to follow in a walk through the woods and they’ll encounter some of the animals that are in the book,” she said.

Butterfly, an indigenous land-based teacher, said he spent most of his free time at the Nature Centre and grew up reading Samson’s Long Ride with his mother. Based on the true story of Samson Beaver, Kerry’s friend, a 10-year-old boy leaves school to find his family, adventuring through the mountain region along the way. Butterfly says the story is relevant today with its hinting of the residential school system.

Grade 1-4 students will have the opportunity to read the drafts and give their opinions on what they liked and what they would like to see instead.

Mark Collings speaking to Oriole Park students in the gymnasium on Wednesday about the project. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

Collings says he anticipates a draft to be prepared by late spring for the students, and printed copies this fall.

The project was supported with $8,000 from the City of Red Deer. With a goal to have the books in schools across the province, Collings says they will need to raise more funds at that time.

School officials say the Nature Centre donated four copies of the original books for their library and that kids will learn through the project about collaboration, literacy, careers in publishing, and the process of bookmaking.

Rondo Wood said she is very excited for the project and hopes it carries her father’s legacy.

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