Book Review: The Great Grain Elevator Incident

The Great Grain Elevator Incident book cover
The Great Grain Elevator Incident book cover

The book “The Great Grain Elevator Incident” is a young adult novel by Kevin Miller, book 4 of a series set in the fictional town of Milligan Creek. This book is not specifically about grain elevators but they are prominently featured throughout the book.

The book follows four boys as they “concoct a wild scheme to save their grain elevators”. It follows a familiar real-life theme of a grain elevator company planning to build a large concrete grain terminal outside of town that will make the town’s historic elevators obsolete.

I received this book from the author as a review copy. I enjoyed reading the book and finished it in a couple of hours. The book reads well and the story moves right along, with a few interesting turns that I did not expect. It is not necessary to read the first three books in the series.

The cover illustration was made by Kierston Vande Krats.

The book reminded me in some ways of the well-known Encyclopedia Brown series, with a group of friends working to solve a problem.

I’d recommend this book to anyone with kids in the 8-12 year range, or even for older children or those of us who are “young at heart”.

Buy this book on Amazon

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Book Review: Forgotten Saskatchewan

I have been looking forward to Forgotten Saskatchewan for a while now. I’ve followed author Chris Attrell‘s work for some time on his web site, and in fact he used to own grainelevators.ca before I bought it from him. I’ve admired his spectacular photos of abandoned buildings and I expected his book would be great. It didn’t disappoint.

Forgotten Saskatchewan is chock full of images of abandoned Saskatchewan. Its 144 pages feature forlorn old farm houses, weathered grain elevators, rusting vehicles, empty churches and abandoned barns. Each image was carefully created, and often feature starry skies, aurora borealis or eerie lighting.

This book is really a love letter to Saskatchewan, a tribute to the decaying beauty in its disappearing small towns.

The book was published by MacIntyre Purcell and the print quality is excellent. If I ever write a photo book, I would strongly consider this publisher. Each page features a beautiful full colour image with a descriptive caption.

A glimpse into the book

Some of the photos were clearly taken from a drone, giving a unique perspective.

There are a number of grain elevators featured in this book, including Dankin, Bents and Neidpath.

If you’re here on this site, you would probably like Forgotten Saskatchewan. You can buy it on Amazon, through McNally Robinson or at Chapters/Indigo.

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Gone But Not Forgotten – Book Review

This is a review of the book “Gone But Not Forgotten: Tales of the Disappearing Grain Elevators” by Elizabeth McLachlan. The book is a collection of stories about grain elevators and the towns they are/were in.

The 28* stories cover all sorts of tales about grain elevators, from bringing grain to market through elevator fires and other mishaps, and include such titles as “Lead in Her Pants” and “Dam(n) Progress”. In general the stories are amusing, touching, and sometimes poignant.

* there are actually 29 stories; the last is Ms. McLachlan’s own story of being married to an elevator agent.

The book is illustrated by historical photos as well as some contributed by noted photographer Chris Stackhouse, including the stunning cover photo of the grain elevator on a farm near Woodhouse, Alberta.

You can buy the book on Amazon or your local bookstore, or maybe find it in your local library.