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Wrote and illustrated a graphic memoir, Aurora Borealice (Conundrum 2019) $20 978-1-77262-037-5.
Also the author/illustrator of So, That's That, the biography of her father, a scrap-metal dealer who lived to be 100.
[BCBW 2019]
A Boy Named Tommy Douglas
by Beryl Young with art by Joan Steacy (Midtown Press $19.95)
Ages 5–8
The preacher-turned-politician Tommy Douglas (1904–1986), who is widely regarded as the father of Canada’s Medicare, was inspired by what happened to him as a boy when there was no universal health care. The young Tommy needed expensive surgery to prevent his leg from being amputated, but his parents couldn’t afford to pay for it.
A stroke of good fortune reverses this near tragedy, and Tommy never forgets what almost happened to him— nor about other unfortunate children with parents who couldn’t afford to pay surgeons. He felt it wasn’t fair, and as an adult, he set out to change this injustice—as told in the graphic novel A Boy Named Tommy Douglas, written by Beryl Young.
The cinematic art by Victoria-based Joan Steacy reveals an energetic young Tommy (he was never called “Tom”), who gashes his leg to the bone after tripping and falling upon a sharp stone while running in a field. The sports-loving boy must stay indoors for months to let his leg heal. He can’t play hockey at school with his friends or build snow forts. Instead, Tommy turns to reciting poetry by Robbie Burns.
“His friends clapped and cheered when Tommy performed at school concerts,” writes Young, who traces the long period of illness that leads to hospital time where a doctor finally says the leg has to be amputated.
Young captures the tragic moment with simple but powerful words that show a child’s emotions: “Amputate! Tommy couldn’t get his breath. ‘You mean cut my leg off?’ The doctor nodded.”
A famous bone surgeon happens to encounter Tommy crying in the hospital and agrees to perform a free operation if his parents let him use the case to teach his students. The operation works, and Tommy is able to return to playing sports and leading the life of a normal boy.
In her art, Joan Steacy captures the historical buildings and fixtures of early 20th-century Saskatchewan, including the ubiquitous grain towers with pointed roofs, woodburning stoves and coal oil lamps. While much of the book deals with Tommy Douglas’ early years, the last third covers the community-minded years of his life as a pastor and then politician, including the year 1968 when Medicare is finally available to all Canadians. As the story progresses, Steacy’s illustrations cleverly display 1960s artwork on walls, starburst clocks and boxy TV sets to reflect the changing times.
We learn of Tommy’s strong social conscience in his first career as a preacher in the 1930s. Young quotes him as saying, “This church won’t be just for worship. We will help people in the community.”
Soon it’s the Great Depression when most people are desperate, with many jobless and not having enough food to eat. While consoling a farmer one day after his daughter has died of a burst appendix, Tommy makes the fateful decision to enter politics because, as Young writes, he “could do more to help people as a politician than as a church minister” by working “to pass laws to help people.”
Tommy’s years reciting poems as a boy made him a powerful speaker. He inspires crowds. “They believed in his dream of medical care for everyone,” writes Young. “Today every Canadian, young or old, rich or poor, whether they live in a town or in the country, in the south or in the north, has the medical care they need.”
More details about Tommy Douglas are provided at the end of the book. In 2004, in a CBC TV vote, he was named the greatest Canadian of all time by people across the country.9781988242415
[BCBW 2022]
Also the author/illustrator of So, That's That, the biography of her father, a scrap-metal dealer who lived to be 100.
[BCBW 2019]
A Boy Named Tommy Douglas
by Beryl Young with art by Joan Steacy (Midtown Press $19.95)
Ages 5–8
The preacher-turned-politician Tommy Douglas (1904–1986), who is widely regarded as the father of Canada’s Medicare, was inspired by what happened to him as a boy when there was no universal health care. The young Tommy needed expensive surgery to prevent his leg from being amputated, but his parents couldn’t afford to pay for it.
A stroke of good fortune reverses this near tragedy, and Tommy never forgets what almost happened to him— nor about other unfortunate children with parents who couldn’t afford to pay surgeons. He felt it wasn’t fair, and as an adult, he set out to change this injustice—as told in the graphic novel A Boy Named Tommy Douglas, written by Beryl Young.
The cinematic art by Victoria-based Joan Steacy reveals an energetic young Tommy (he was never called “Tom”), who gashes his leg to the bone after tripping and falling upon a sharp stone while running in a field. The sports-loving boy must stay indoors for months to let his leg heal. He can’t play hockey at school with his friends or build snow forts. Instead, Tommy turns to reciting poetry by Robbie Burns.
“His friends clapped and cheered when Tommy performed at school concerts,” writes Young, who traces the long period of illness that leads to hospital time where a doctor finally says the leg has to be amputated.
Young captures the tragic moment with simple but powerful words that show a child’s emotions: “Amputate! Tommy couldn’t get his breath. ‘You mean cut my leg off?’ The doctor nodded.”
A famous bone surgeon happens to encounter Tommy crying in the hospital and agrees to perform a free operation if his parents let him use the case to teach his students. The operation works, and Tommy is able to return to playing sports and leading the life of a normal boy.
In her art, Joan Steacy captures the historical buildings and fixtures of early 20th-century Saskatchewan, including the ubiquitous grain towers with pointed roofs, woodburning stoves and coal oil lamps. While much of the book deals with Tommy Douglas’ early years, the last third covers the community-minded years of his life as a pastor and then politician, including the year 1968 when Medicare is finally available to all Canadians. As the story progresses, Steacy’s illustrations cleverly display 1960s artwork on walls, starburst clocks and boxy TV sets to reflect the changing times.
We learn of Tommy’s strong social conscience in his first career as a preacher in the 1930s. Young quotes him as saying, “This church won’t be just for worship. We will help people in the community.”
Soon it’s the Great Depression when most people are desperate, with many jobless and not having enough food to eat. While consoling a farmer one day after his daughter has died of a burst appendix, Tommy makes the fateful decision to enter politics because, as Young writes, he “could do more to help people as a politician than as a church minister” by working “to pass laws to help people.”
Tommy’s years reciting poems as a boy made him a powerful speaker. He inspires crowds. “They believed in his dream of medical care for everyone,” writes Young. “Today every Canadian, young or old, rich or poor, whether they live in a town or in the country, in the south or in the north, has the medical care they need.”
More details about Tommy Douglas are provided at the end of the book. In 2004, in a CBC TV vote, he was named the greatest Canadian of all time by people across the country.9781988242415
[BCBW 2022]
