On Oct. 18, students from the Oxbow Prairie Horizon School earned the chance to meet local author Mary Bishop at a book reading for the revised edition of her book, Tunnels of Tyranny.
The reading took place in an underground room in the Passage to Fortune tunnels off Main Street North.
As the books were written in a fictional rendition of the same subterranean setting, the venue was perfect. “I am so lucky to get to launch the book in the tunnels,” Bishop said.
This was the second iteration of a new idea. Previously, Bishop’s revised book Tunnels of Time was published in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and such gatherings were off the table. To get around this, Bishop made a recorded presentation that followed safe distance measures.
After restrictions from the pandemic were lifted some new ideas started to develop.
“Last year Kelly (Carty) and Bobby (Hill) came up with the idea of having this contest, so this was the second year of having the contest (and) inviting a class from Saskatchewan to come and meet me. It was such an honour to be able to do that,” Bishop said.
Students from grades five to eight across Saskatchewan were invited to make a video explaining why they wanted to come visit the tunnels and meet Bishop. The winning class received free transportation, lunch, and a guided tunnel tour.
“This group (of students) from Oxbow made such a fantastic video. It was great, and this is a great bunch of kids. It’s good to see kids excited about history and about books,” said Kelly Carty, business development manager with the Tunnels of Moose Jaw.
Bishop found inspiration to write after visiting a friend in Moose Jaw during the late 90s. At the time, only a limited tunnel tour was available.
“It was just a short 15-minute tour, and I remember when we finally came and I went into the tunnels… (I remember) walking in and just feeling that there was a story there,” Bishop recalled.
“I had my kids with me and dragged them through that one tunnel tour three times. They were so bored,” she recalled with a chuckle.
Bishop said she absolutely loved the tour, and it left a lasting impact on her. “I (envisioned) these two kids running through the tunnels, and I could feel that they were scared. That was the start of Tunnels of Time, and so it grew from there,” Bishop explained.
Bishop said the idea for her latest book, Tunnels of Tyranny, came after doing some research on the lesser-known details of Moose Jaw’s history.
“I came across (an) article about the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) being in Moose Jaw,” she said. “The Klan had been there looking for members and basically rabble rousing.”
“I wanted to tell that story because I didn’t know that history of Moose Jaw or Saskatchewan and I thought it was very important for students and children to know that and understand it.”
Bishop said the story loosely follows an actual event where three men came to Moose Jaw from Indiana on behalf of the KKK. To encourage these men to leave, the two historical and two time-travelling protagonists had to cooperate to find a solution.
“The whole story has to do with the Chinese people here in town getting harassed and being forced out of their businesses,” she added. This made the Tunnels to Fortune an impactful venue.
Bishop’s books form a five-part series, and four have since been revised after being written almost 20 years ago. Bishop said her next plan is to revise the final book in the series.
The revisions help today’s young readers find the book more relatable.
“We revised the language. It’s amazing how much language has changed,” said Bishop. In addition, new technology including cellphones were added to the existing plot.
The idea came after Bishop received several requests from teachers and bookstores asking how to get a copy of the books after her former publisher, Coteau Books, went out of business.
Driver Works Ink is now printing her books, and this includes Tunnels of Tyranny.
Revised editions come with several new features, including illustrations by Wendi Nordell and “You Be the Writer,” which encourages young writers to re-work some of Bishop’s stories or develop their own works. Two of Bishop’s books now have this feature.
“As a child writer since I was nine, I never had the opportunity to meet another writer,” Bishop explained. “I love the opportunity of meeting kids, going into classrooms, and working with kids and talking to (young writers).”
Mary Harelkin Bishop currently lives in Saskatoon and has been writing since the age of nine. She is the award-winning author of several bestselling juvenile historical fiction books including the Tunnels of Moose Jaw series. Bishop has been a teacher, teacher-librarian, and an educational consultant with Saskatoon Public Schools.
Bishop currently has 10 books in print available through Driver Works Ink. You can order a copy by visiting DriverWorks.ca.
Additional copies of her books can be found at the Tunnels of Moose Jaw office, the Yvette Moore Gallery, Rand McNally Robinson, Indigo/Coles, and MaryHBishop.ca.
The Tunnels of Moose Jaw office is located at 18 Main Street North and the Yvette Moore Gallery is located at 76 Fairford Street West.
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