You may purchase
Colin's Choice
online at:

Rising  Above
www.risingabove.ca
or from
McNally Robinson Booksellers
 www.mcnallyrobinson.ca 
or from
www.essencebookstore.com


It is also available for sale
at the following locations:


Winnipeg, MB - McNally Robinson Booksellers

Winnipeg, MB - Aqua Books

Winnipeg, MB - Hull's Family Bookstores

Sioux Lookout, ON - Tourist Information Centre

Sioux Lookout, ON - Good News Books 'N' Things 

Red Lake, ON - Mitch's Midtown

Otterbourne, MB - Providence Bookstore

Oakville, ON - Good Books 

Niverville, MB - Solomon's Porch

Kenora, ON - Ho Joe's Coffee and Books

Ear Falls, ON - Bumper to Bumper

Caronport, Sask - Briercrest Bookstore
 
Burlington, ON - The Family Christian Bookstore

Colin's Choice received The Word Guild 2006 Canadian Writing Awards Young Adult Award of Merit

Endorsements for "Colin's Choice

     Sammy’s chair creaked as he leaned forward. “How’s Bobby doing?” he asked.
     Colin thought for a moment. The last time he’d seen Bobby, he’d been all excited about the pizza they were having for supper. And he, Colin, had fallen into a nightmare filled with unspeakable terrors.
     A frustrated anger rose up in Colin, this time directed towards himself.
     He wasn’t the one who’d been hurt -- Bobby was!
     “He seems to be doing better than I am,” Colin spoke bitterly. 
     Sammy’s reply surprised him. “That’s very understandable.” 
     “Why?” Colin demanded.
     For an answer, Sammy leaned back in his chair and spoke in a quiet, steady voice. “I was the youngest of four brothers. Each year, I watched as my Dad let first one and then another of my brothers go with him on the trap-line. Every time I asked him, he told me I was too young.”
     “I must’ve wore him down finally with all my begging,” Sammy spoke with a twinkle in his eye. “My Dad finally told me that I could come with them. But he warned me that it was tough man’s work and I couldn’t be a baby out there. If I got hurt, I’d have to be tough and just keep on working.”
     Colin settled back in his chair and grinned. Sammy had definitely shifted into “story mode”.
     The older man continued, “Everything went okay for a while. I was really tired by the end of the day but we all still had our chores to do to set up camp for the night. My job was to cut firewood. One time, it was getting dark by the time I finished chopping. I stuck my axe in the tree but forgot it was there when I came back for a second load of wood. My shoulder bumped the axe and it came down right on top of my bent leg. I just had blue jeans on so it cut pretty deep.”
     Sammy shook his head and smiled wryly. “Almost can’t believe now what I did – but somehow I kept it from my Dad and brothers that I’d been hurt. I put snow on my leg to stop the bleeding and numb the pain. Then I wrapped it up with a woolen scarf and with my ski pants over top, no one could tell that it was even hurt. I didn’t sleep at all that night and the next day my brothers started bugging me about walking too slow. I forgot to eat or drink. It took all my strength just to get through the day without crying because of the pain.”
     Sammy paused reflectively. “That night the fever came. I don’t remember much after that. They tell me that I almost died. They had quite a time getting me out of the bush. Then they had to arrange for an air ambulance. A piece of the jean material was stuck in the wound. The infection had got right into the bone. There was talk of amputating my leg but I guess the antibiotics finally kicked in. I was almost two weeks in the hospital and it took me a long time after that to be up and running again. I still have a slight limp.”
     Colin nodded. Ever since he could remember, Sammy had occasionally walked with a limp. It was especially noticeable when he’d been on his feet for a while.
     But what did all this have to do with what they’d been talking about? Colin was almost tempted to ask when Sammy began speaking once more.
     “A couple years ago, I had another quite severe injury. A fight broke out between two men. One of them had a knife. I tried to break up the fight; the fellow with the knife turned on me and stabbed me in the chest, barely missing my heart. It was an even deeper wound than the one on my leg that I got as a kid. But this time I got proper treatment. There was no danger of me dying, I was in the hospital overnight, took one day off from my job and was back doing desk work the next day. Though this was a lot deeper wound, I have a much smaller scar on my chest and sometimes I almost forget that it’s there.”
     Sammy leaned back in his chair.
     Colin spoke hesitantly, “I’m not really sure what you’re trying to tell me.”
     The older man was silent. Then he began in a quiet earnest voice, “Colin, Bobby’s getting the proper care for his injuries – both his physical and emotional ones. But…” Sammy leaned forward, “when you were hurt, you didn’t tell anybody.”
     Colin turned away. “There was no one,” he whispered hoarsely.