Karen Autio wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth; she started writing with one.
A gift of a silver spoon as an heirloom from her grandmother led to talks about her Finnish heritage and recollections of how relatives died in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914. That gift and conversation inspired Autio to write her first novel, Second Watch (Sono Nis, 2005), about 12-year-old Saara Môki, en route to Finland on the doomed steamship.
About two-thirds of that ocean liner's 1,477 passengers and crew died when the Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian ship in the Saint Lawrence River in 1914. In Autio's second novel, Saara's Passage (Sono Nis, 2008), Saara, as one of the 465 survivors, returns to northwestern Ontario only to learn her beloved Aunt Marja must move to a sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis.
Autio's Finnish Canadian trilogy has been completed with Sabotage (Sono Nis, 2013) based on an attempt to blow up a Nipigon River railway bridge near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) during the First World War. As someone born in Thunder Bay, Autio had heard about the story but never believed until she undertook research for her novels and learned the 1915 incident was true.
In Sabotage, 13-year-old heroine Saara at first refuses to listen to her pesky younger brother John when he talks about spies in Canada. She has more important things to worry about, such as her German friend being hauled off to live in a Canadian internment camp.
But so much of Canada's grain for Allied soldiers in Europe was being routed via Port Arthur that ultimately Saara must accept her brother's fantasies are based on a real threat. Once more the Môki family is in jeopardy and her courage and wits will be put to the test.
One of the first publications from Vancouver-based Crwth Press, Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon (Crwth Press, 2018) is Karen Autio's story of a place where syilx/Okanagan people trapped wild horses. Living in Kelowna, Autio develped a fascination for the Wild Horse Canyon and she began researching the area, quickly getting hooked on what had happened there over the past two centuries. Weaving together First Nation history, European settler accounts and natural history, Autio’s storyline coalesced when she began imagining a ponderosa pine tree growing in the canyon for the past 200 years. Maps, old photos, and illustrations by Loraine Kemp complement the text.
In her 7th title, I Can, Too! (Scholastic Canada), for ages 3 - 7, Karen Autio tells the story of new friendship between two children with diverse abilities. Piper and Kayla love to move. They ride bikes, glide on ice, swoosh down mountains and much more — each in her own way. While Piper pedals her tricycle with her feet, Kayla uses her hands to move her trike forward. While Kayla coasts across the ice on a sled, Piper sails along on skates. The inspiration for I Can, Too! comes from the author’s daughter, who was born with spina bifida. On a visit to the mall after her child received her first wheelchair, a young boy pointed, asking his mother, "Why is that girl in a wheelbarrow?" Karen Autio welcomed questions so the unknown could be named and understood and children could get to know her daughter.
Born in Thunder Bay, Karen Autio of Kelowna holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. She worked as a software developer for several years before pursuing a career in children's literature.
BOOKS:
Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005) 9781550391510
Saara's Passage (Sono Nis Press, 2008) 9781550391688
Sabotage (Sono Nis Press, 2013) $10.95 9781550392081
Kah-Lan the Adventurous Sea Otter (Sono Nis, 2015) $9.95 9781550392449
Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon (Crwth Press, 2018) $25.95 9781775331902
Kah-LAN and the Stink-Ink (Crwth Press, 2020) $9.95 9781989724071. Illustrated by Emma Pedersen
Making Seaker (Crwth Press, 2021) $9.95 9781989724095
I Can, Too! (Scholastic Canada, 2022) $8.99 9781443190084
[BCBW 2023]
****
REVIEW
Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon by Karen Autio, art by Loraine Kemp (Crwth Press $25.95) Ages 7-10
Review by Ken Mather
At the heart of Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon is the illustrated story of the life of a Ponderosa Pine from a seed in the year 1780 to its death in the Okanagan Park fire in 2003. As the tree grows, the story is told of the history of the Okanagan Valley and the Syilx people, who have seen profound changes to their culture during the same period of time.
The story uses Wild Horse Canyon, located on the east side of Okanagan Lake, as the location of its episodes, which include the arrival of the first fur traders in 1811, the fur brigades that traveled the valley in the first half of the 1800s, the B.C. gold rush era, the arrival of Father Pandosy in 1859, the arrival of settlers, the sternwheeler era, logging, the Kettle Valley railway construction, the round-up of wild horses to sell to the Russians in 1926, and the use of the Wild Horse Canyon area for training Chinese commandos in 1944.
Although only 25 pages long, the ongoing story provides an overview history of the Okanagan Valley with particular emphasis, respect and sensitivity toward the Syilx people.
Despite the book's considerable strengths and fine illustrations, a few historical inaccuracies mar the otherwise well-researched presentation. For example, Karen Autio asserts that the fur trade, "...radically altered the traditional practices of the Okanagan people."
While it is important not to diminish the impact of white intruders on the Syilx people, it must be emphasized that the most devastating effects came with the arrival of gold miners and settlers in the valley, not in the time of the fur trade.
I also question the assertion that "the gold rush era was devastating in the Okanagan Valley. It drastically altered rivers, creeks and fish populations which wreaked havoc on the Okanagan people's way of being."
This greatly exaggerates the impact of miners in the Okanagan Valley during the gold rush years. There were short-lived gold rushes to the Similkameen in 1859 and to Rock Creek in 1860, and a minor rush to Mission Creek near present-day Kelowna in 1860. But to state that these early gold mining incursions devastated rivers, creeks and fish populations of the Okanagan Valley is not accurate.
Finally, I would question the statement that "raising cattle and hogs became the main industry in the Okanagan Valley." To my knowledge, few hogs were raised in the Okanagan in the years before orchards began to replace cattle ranching.
Despite these questionable interpretations of history, the book is an excellent resource for students as well as adults who are interested in Okanagan history, particularly in the recent history of the Syilx people who had lived here for thousands of years before their culture was, indeed, eventually devastated by the colonists. 9781775331902
Ken Mather retired in 2013 after 42 years in heritage research. Manager of the Historic O'Keefe Ranch from 1984 until 2014, Ken is now curator emeritus of O'Keefe Ranch and was awarded the Joe Martin Memorial award for his contribution to B.C. Cowboy Heritage in 2015. His latest book is Ranch Tales: Stories from the Frontier (Heritage House $19.95).
****
A gift of a silver spoon as an heirloom from her grandmother led to talks about her Finnish heritage and recollections of how relatives died in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914. That gift and conversation inspired Autio to write her first novel, Second Watch (Sono Nis, 2005), about 12-year-old Saara Môki, en route to Finland on the doomed steamship.
About two-thirds of that ocean liner's 1,477 passengers and crew died when the Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian ship in the Saint Lawrence River in 1914. In Autio's second novel, Saara's Passage (Sono Nis, 2008), Saara, as one of the 465 survivors, returns to northwestern Ontario only to learn her beloved Aunt Marja must move to a sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis.
Autio's Finnish Canadian trilogy has been completed with Sabotage (Sono Nis, 2013) based on an attempt to blow up a Nipigon River railway bridge near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) during the First World War. As someone born in Thunder Bay, Autio had heard about the story but never believed until she undertook research for her novels and learned the 1915 incident was true.
In Sabotage, 13-year-old heroine Saara at first refuses to listen to her pesky younger brother John when he talks about spies in Canada. She has more important things to worry about, such as her German friend being hauled off to live in a Canadian internment camp.
But so much of Canada's grain for Allied soldiers in Europe was being routed via Port Arthur that ultimately Saara must accept her brother's fantasies are based on a real threat. Once more the Môki family is in jeopardy and her courage and wits will be put to the test.
One of the first publications from Vancouver-based Crwth Press, Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon (Crwth Press, 2018) is Karen Autio's story of a place where syilx/Okanagan people trapped wild horses. Living in Kelowna, Autio develped a fascination for the Wild Horse Canyon and she began researching the area, quickly getting hooked on what had happened there over the past two centuries. Weaving together First Nation history, European settler accounts and natural history, Autio’s storyline coalesced when she began imagining a ponderosa pine tree growing in the canyon for the past 200 years. Maps, old photos, and illustrations by Loraine Kemp complement the text.
In her 7th title, I Can, Too! (Scholastic Canada), for ages 3 - 7, Karen Autio tells the story of new friendship between two children with diverse abilities. Piper and Kayla love to move. They ride bikes, glide on ice, swoosh down mountains and much more — each in her own way. While Piper pedals her tricycle with her feet, Kayla uses her hands to move her trike forward. While Kayla coasts across the ice on a sled, Piper sails along on skates. The inspiration for I Can, Too! comes from the author’s daughter, who was born with spina bifida. On a visit to the mall after her child received her first wheelchair, a young boy pointed, asking his mother, "Why is that girl in a wheelbarrow?" Karen Autio welcomed questions so the unknown could be named and understood and children could get to know her daughter.
Born in Thunder Bay, Karen Autio of Kelowna holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. She worked as a software developer for several years before pursuing a career in children's literature.
BOOKS:
Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005) 9781550391510
Saara's Passage (Sono Nis Press, 2008) 9781550391688
Sabotage (Sono Nis Press, 2013) $10.95 9781550392081
Kah-Lan the Adventurous Sea Otter (Sono Nis, 2015) $9.95 9781550392449
Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon (Crwth Press, 2018) $25.95 9781775331902
Kah-LAN and the Stink-Ink (Crwth Press, 2020) $9.95 9781989724071. Illustrated by Emma Pedersen
Making Seaker (Crwth Press, 2021) $9.95 9781989724095
I Can, Too! (Scholastic Canada, 2022) $8.99 9781443190084
[BCBW 2023]
****
REVIEW
Growing Up in Wild Horse Canyon by Karen Autio, art by Loraine Kemp (Crwth Press $25.95) Ages 7-10
Review by Ken Mather
At the heart of Growing up in Wild Horse Canyon is the illustrated story of the life of a Ponderosa Pine from a seed in the year 1780 to its death in the Okanagan Park fire in 2003. As the tree grows, the story is told of the history of the Okanagan Valley and the Syilx people, who have seen profound changes to their culture during the same period of time.
The story uses Wild Horse Canyon, located on the east side of Okanagan Lake, as the location of its episodes, which include the arrival of the first fur traders in 1811, the fur brigades that traveled the valley in the first half of the 1800s, the B.C. gold rush era, the arrival of Father Pandosy in 1859, the arrival of settlers, the sternwheeler era, logging, the Kettle Valley railway construction, the round-up of wild horses to sell to the Russians in 1926, and the use of the Wild Horse Canyon area for training Chinese commandos in 1944.
Although only 25 pages long, the ongoing story provides an overview history of the Okanagan Valley with particular emphasis, respect and sensitivity toward the Syilx people.
Despite the book's considerable strengths and fine illustrations, a few historical inaccuracies mar the otherwise well-researched presentation. For example, Karen Autio asserts that the fur trade, "...radically altered the traditional practices of the Okanagan people."
While it is important not to diminish the impact of white intruders on the Syilx people, it must be emphasized that the most devastating effects came with the arrival of gold miners and settlers in the valley, not in the time of the fur trade.
I also question the assertion that "the gold rush era was devastating in the Okanagan Valley. It drastically altered rivers, creeks and fish populations which wreaked havoc on the Okanagan people's way of being."
This greatly exaggerates the impact of miners in the Okanagan Valley during the gold rush years. There were short-lived gold rushes to the Similkameen in 1859 and to Rock Creek in 1860, and a minor rush to Mission Creek near present-day Kelowna in 1860. But to state that these early gold mining incursions devastated rivers, creeks and fish populations of the Okanagan Valley is not accurate.
Finally, I would question the statement that "raising cattle and hogs became the main industry in the Okanagan Valley." To my knowledge, few hogs were raised in the Okanagan in the years before orchards began to replace cattle ranching.
Despite these questionable interpretations of history, the book is an excellent resource for students as well as adults who are interested in Okanagan history, particularly in the recent history of the Syilx people who had lived here for thousands of years before their culture was, indeed, eventually devastated by the colonists. 9781775331902
Ken Mather retired in 2013 after 42 years in heritage research. Manager of the Historic O'Keefe Ranch from 1984 until 2014, Ken is now curator emeritus of O'Keefe Ranch and was awarded the Joe Martin Memorial award for his contribution to B.C. Cowboy Heritage in 2015. His latest book is Ranch Tales: Stories from the Frontier (Heritage House $19.95).
****
Articles: 3 Articles for this author
Saara’s Passage
Review
Saara's Passage by Karen Autio (Sono Nis $13.95)
ages 10+
Her grandmother' silver sugar spoon started Karen Autio on the path to two children's novels about the history of Finnish settlement in Canada.
The spoon had belonged to her grandmother's friend, who claimed it had been saved from the Titanic. The spoon led Autio to another story about the woman's relatives, who died when the Empress of Ireland sunk in the St. Lawrence River in 1914.
"When I found out it was Canada's worst nautical disaster in peacetime," says Autio, "I couldn't believe I'd never heard of it." She began researching the Empress of Ireland and discovered the ship had brought more than 100,000 European immigrants to Canada. "I realized, wow, there's a lot of material here. Maybe it could be a novel."
Seven years later, she released Second Watch (Sono Nis 2005), in which 12-year-old Saara Môki is en route to Finland aboard the doomed Empress of Ireland-and she survives the catastrophic voyage.
In its sequel, Saara's Passage, her return to northwestern Ontario is complicated by the necessity of having her beloved Aunt Marja move to the sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis, leaving Baby Sanni in need of a caregiver.
The story was inspired by the experience of Autio's grandmother, who had to leave her baby-Karen Autio's mother-with her husband at their farm near Thunder Bay while she was treated in a Toronto sanatorium. Her grandmother never talked about the tragedy, but Autio pieced together the story from other family members.
Her grandmother, who had emigrated from Finland only five years before, was miserable in the sanatorium and eventually discharged herself against her doctor's orders. She returned home, living alone in a barn so no one else would be infected.
"She had to spend the next couple of years apart from my mother, watching other women care for her child,"; says Autio. She eventually recovered. When she died at age 86, she left letters she had written to the baby when she expected to die from tuberculosis.
"It was just soul-bearing,"; says Autio, her voice choking with emotion. "My mom translated them for me into English so I could read these letters. At that point, I had to know more about what had happened."
Saara's Passage provides an authentic portrayal of a bygone era in Ontario, including the socialist history of Finnish immigrants. Although the characters came from her imagination, she gleaned details about daily life from interviews with seniors as well as research at the archives of Lakehead University and the museum at Thunder Bay, where she grew up. "I am a stickler for the details and being accurate to the time period," says Autio.
Autio studied math and computer science at the University of Waterloo, which led to jobs in software development for major corporations, including Shell Canada and MacDonald, Dettwiler, an information-services company.She moved to Kelowna in 1996, after living in Calgary and the Lower Mainland with her husband, Will, also a software developer. Her first child Annaliis is now 21. Autio started writing ten years ago when her son Stefan started school.
978-1-55039-167-1
[By Portia Priegert / BCBW 2009].
Portia Priegert
Sabotage by Karen Autio (Sono Nis $10.95)
Review (2013)
Karen autio wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth; she started writing with one.
A gift of a silver spoon as an heirloom from her grandmother led to talks about her Finnish heritage-and recollections of how relatives died in the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914. That gift and conversation inspired Autio to tell the tale of 12-year-old Saara Môki, en route to Finland on the doomed steamship, for her first novel, Second Watch (Sono Nis Press, 2005).
About two-thirds of that ocean liner's 1,477 passengers and crew died when the Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian ship in the Saint Lawrence River in 1914. In Autio's second novel, Saara's Passage (Sono Nis 2008), Saara, as one of the 465 survivors, returns to northwestern Ontario only to learn her beloved Aunt Marja must move to a sanatorium in Toronto for treatment of tuberculosis.
Autio's Finnish-Canadian trilogy has been completed with Sabotage, which is based on an attempt to blow up the Nipigon River railway bridge near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) during the First World War. As someone born in Thunder Bay, Autio had heard about the story but never believed it until she undertook research for her novels and learned the 1915 incident was true.
In Sabotage, 13-year-old heroine Saara at first refuses to listen to her pesky younger brother John when he talks about spies in Canada. She has more important things to worry about, such as her German friend being hauled off to live in a Canadian internment camp.
But so much of Canada's grain for Allied soldiers in Europe is being routed via Port Arthur that ultimately Saara must accept that her brother's fantasies are based on a real threat. Once more the Môki family is in jeopardy and her courage and wits will be put to the test. 978-1-55039-208-1
BCBW 2013
Kah-Lan the Adventurous Sea Otter (Sono Nis $9.95)
Review (2015)
You know you're stuck on a story when it stays in your head for three decades and it won't let go. Such was the case for Karen Autio and her fourth book for children, Kah-Lan the Adventurous Sea Otter.
After moving to Vancouver to attend Regent College in 1984, Autio and her husband Will soon bought aquarium passes. For hours at a time, she would park her lawn chair outside the sea otter enclosure, observing, wondering, and developing a story about two, almost-mature, wild sea otters getting swept away by a powerful ocean current.
The story persisted in her mind as she shifted her focus to raising her children and writing three historical novels. Over the years Autio kept fine-tuning the balance of her otter story between natural history and a quest story. "I was not only smitten with sea otters," Autio says, "I was also fascinated by their survival skills in the Pacific Ocean."
While Autio's admiration for otters shaped the plot, the manuscript was passed through a string of biologists to ensure naturalistic accuracy. Dripping with ecological facts yet without a whiff of didacticism, Kah-Lan the Adventurous Sea Otter weaves the natural environment into the myriad challenges that otters contend with-from orcas and riptides to food scarcity and fishing net entanglement.
Kah-Lan and his pal Yamka must contend with human encroachment, hide from orcas, dive for ever-scarcer food in their home kelp bed and avoid periodic grouchy cuffings from the Grand Otters living in their raft.
The young otters describe humans and human-made objects in zoomorphic terms such as sea-trees, furless ones and-my personal favourite-not-rock (kelp forests, humans and an old glass bottle, respectively).
Reminiscent of the invented words in Richard Adams' Watership Down, the language in Kah-Lan is nonetheless easy for young readers to discern without a glossary-although there is one provided.
"I played with language to express Kah-Lan's perspective," says Autio, "and to immerse the reader in his watery world. Kalan is a zoological term for sea otter and the spelling Kah-Lan helps readers know how to pronounce it."
At the end of the book, readers will find several pages of information about sea otters, including their role in keeping our kelp forests healthy so that they, in turn, can support a diversity of sea life.
Engaging text, quick pacing and illustrations by Sheena Lott put the reader at eye level with the demands of life in our shallow coastal waters, while present-tense narration lends a sense of urgency to the otters' experiences.
Targeted mainly for readers ages seven to twelve, Kah-Lan is a story with cross-generational appeal because it will lead to conversations about the health of our oceans, the necessity of maintaining biodiversity of the maritime environment and the importance of keystone species-such as the sea otter. 978-1-55039-244-9
Alex Van Tol