A passenger train arrives in Jasper, bringing a group of elementary school students from Vancouver to a place they've seen only in their imagination - and in the pages of a book.
The book that inspired the trip was discovered last summer by Laurie Cassie, a teacher at David Livingstone Elementary School in Vancouver. Browsing through a gift shop aboard a B.C. ferry she came across the book ‘On Mountaintop Rock' by Edmonton author John McLay.
The book takes place in 1954 Jasper and involves the tale of two children who take-on a Rocky Mountain mystery about an abandoned fur-trading post. While the book is fiction, it incorporates actual landmarks and real-life visits by Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.
The book caught Laurie's eye, so she bought it.
A few chapters in and Laurie discovered there was something very special about the book. "There were so many teaching elements buried within this piece of literature," said Laurie explaining that the book was so rich and deep in content, "there was no stopping the teaching."
So, Laurie did what teachers do; she created a full lesson plan for her class based entirely on the book.
"You get deeply involved and committed to these characters and what's going to happen," says Laurie, "and at the same time, you're learning history and the Canadian story."
It's 'that' mixture of fantasy and truth that Laurie says inspired the trip.
With a special discount from VIA Rail Canada, a fair bit of fundraising, and parents paying the rest of the way, Laurie was able to bring around sixty students to Jasper this spring so they could live out a fictional adventure set in a real place.
Not only did the students get to visit the sleepy mountain town so they could experience the setting of ‘On Mountaintop Rock,' they also got a chance to meet John McLay, the author of the very book that so influenced Laurie.
John caught up with the group in Jasper and served as a tour-guide, showing off the locations described in the book and sharing the rich history of the area that served as the foundation for his novel.
"It's really cool cause we read about them and heard about them," said student Vivian Martens as she toured the town-site with the author, "but it's really different seeing them in real life."
For John, the chance to meet the teacher and students so affected by his work was an extraordinary experience, "I think it's wonderful and I don't think you could ask for much more in writing a little book."
For the students from David Livingstone Elementary, this educational-trip-of-a-lifetime helped bring history to life, a history they were now forever linked to.
With files from Bill Fortier
The book 'On Mountaintop Rock' is available in Edmonton at Chapters on Whyte Avenue, online through Indigo and at the Jasper Yellowhead Museum gift shop in Jasper.
