In addition to having Ollie's Field Journal featured on CBC TV's The Hour on Tuesday, June 11, Patti McIntosh has just been invited to join the Young International Festival of Authors (IFOA) at Harbourfront Centre in October of 2008! We look forward to welcoming Patti back to Toronto!

Author Patti McIntosh was part of an article that appeared in the Toronto Star on Tuesday, June 10th that focused on peanuts. In her book Ollie's Field Journal, peanut paste prescription is highlighted as a cure for malnourished children in Africa, whereas in North America we can't even put peanuts in our kids' lunches anymore. For the full story, check out http://healthzone.ca/health/article/440029 

Ollie’s Field Journal: A 9/10ths Happy Story From Africa
Written by Patti McIntosh, Illustrated by Tara Langlois

 “Be it resolved, as Junior Global Citizens, we will learn, and we will share our ideas and we will tell the world about the problem of malnutrition and children.”

Ollie’s Field Journal: A 9/10ths Happy Story from Africa is an inspiring and creative effort by Patti McIntosh and Tara Langlois that encourages children to become active in issues affecting their world, in particular malnutrition.

The book documents Ollie’s journey to Niger, Africa during the “hunger season” to learn about three important things:

1. What malnutrition is and why it happens
2. How children suffering from malnutrition can be helped
3. Why mothers make the best doctors

This book was influenced by two separate articles produced by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The first article describes the work MSF accomplished in Niger, Africa during the food crisis in 2005 – and the success of what Ollie calls the ‘Peanut Paste Prescription’. The second talked about the influence of témoignage – the importance of speaking out or bearing witness. Ollie’s Field Journal is designed to reflect how a child might bear witness.

This is the second book by Patti and Tara, their first, The Remarkable Maria, won Children’s Book of the Year at the 2006 Alberta Book Awards and was short-listed for the Ontario Library Association’s 2007 Silver Birch Awards.