Jennie Frost in Ontario

My tour took me from Sault Ste. Marie east along the St. Mary River through Echo Bay, Laird, St. Joseph Island, Bruce Mines, Thessalon, and Blind River. I told Greek myth and folktales from many countries. I enjoyed non-stop action, friendly, welcoming people, and celebrity treatment from all my hosts, organisers, and audiences.

As the week progressed, my intros stretched to explain background material, as I sensed many students lacked context for my stories. This often led to interesting questions later. For example, at St. Joseph School, I said Brer Rabbit probably came to America with the African slaves and explained a little about American slavery. Later, I told the story of Androcles, a slave in ancient Rome. A boy asked how slavery differed from just working for someone. Afterwards a teacher said, “‘Androcles’ seems to have made the biggest impression, which is odd, when it’s about slavery.” I thought, “It’s about heroic kindness and escape from slavery,” but I wondered if these children had ever before run into the concept of slavery.

Friday afternoon in Blind River, as I was setting up for my last session, the bell rang. I heard a boy tell his friends he was going to hide in the library and some adult say sharply, “Don’t do that. Go to your class!” That startled me—I saw no other adult in the room. Grades 3 – 8 filed in. We spent a lovely hour together. When they’d all left, Justyn, whom I later found out was “technically not supposed to be there,” crawled out from under a table at the back of the library and scampered off. I went downstairs laughing to tell Sheila Dufour, my school host, about him. She said she’d really wanted to attend my session but couldn’t leave the office, so had listened on the intercom. It was she who’d told Justyn to go to class! I figured both of them had given me a great compliment. What a lovely way to end my week!