The Dreadful Truth: Confederation

Read the most by: boys and girls

This irreverent and light-hearted illustrated book focuses on a topic no child in school can avoid: Confederation. Although in social studies Confederation may put kids to sleep, Ted Staunton thinks that's because so much of story is left out of the text books. Here he reveals how the fathers of Confederation engineered their plan and how they used their newspapers to convince the people. In Charlottetown, every day was party day as the well-funded Upper Canadians worked on the reluctant Maritimers at social events. In the lead-up to key elections, Confederation's friends were quite happy to use their funds to bribe opponents into silence. Classroom heroes look a lot less heroic - and yet far more interesting - in Ted Stauton's portrayal.