Born in England on June 27, 1945, anti-racism educator Sylvia Sikunda lived in Ghana, Australia, Kenya, Denmark and Uganda before settling in B.C. For readers aged 4 to 8, she wrote Forest Singer, a picture book set in western Uganda. "Mabuti loves his life in the forest but he hates the way his friends tease him and even the animals run away because he can't sing. So Mabuti decides to practise. He practises and practises and practises until one day he astounds his friends and family with his beautiful voice." The book is illustrated by Alison Astill. Sikundar's concern for wildlife is the focus for Circling Vultures in which two boyhood friends, Jason and Peter, are reunited in Africa after Jason's parents had taken the family to Canada. There is a drought, poachers are devastating wildlife in a national park, and Peter's father is suspected of poaching. With Barbara DuMoulin, a Burnaby high school teacher of ESL, English and Mathematics since 1970, she co-authored the teacher's guide Celebrating Our Cultures: Language Arts Activities for Classroom Teachers. With Diane Williams, Sikunda also published Windows on the World: Plays and Activities Adapted from Folk Tales from Different Lands. The daughter of an entomologist, Sikundar has degrees in sociology and anthropology from Simon Fraser University. Raised mainly in Australia and Ghana, she lives on Salt Spring Island, having arrived in British Columbia in 1975.

BOOKS:

Introducing China (Weigl Educational Publishers, 1992). (Teacher Resource)
Introducing Japan (Weigl Educational Publishers, 1994). (Teacher Resource)
Circling Vultures (Quintin Publishers, 1994). (Young Adult Novel)
Windows on the World: Plays and Activities Adapted from Folk Tales from Different Lands (Pacific Educational Press, 1997). Co-author.
The Ivory Claw (ITP Nelson, 1998). Juvenile Novel.
Celebrating Our Cultures: Language Arts Activities for Classroom Teachers (Markham, Ontario: Pembroke, 1998).
Forest Singer (U.K.: Barefoot Books, 1999)

[A.T. / BCBW 2003] "Advice" "Kidlit"