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The Great St. Patrick's Day Race

by Kate Hodgson

The lead cat in harness, goggles, and wooly hat and boots.

Think herding cats is hard? Try sled racing them.

Kate Hodgson, a cat lover, has written and illustrated the story of the St. Patrick's Day Race - a sled race.

 

Book Launch

2 pm Saturday November 17th

Upper Room St. Mary's Parish Hall - located on the North side of 20th between Ave O&P. The church parking lot is on Ave O. The upper room is wheel chair accessible.

 

 

 

The book

Orange cat at the top of a pine tree."All stories are true. Some of them even happened, and when I say 'Once upon a time' it will happen to you."

On St. Patrick's Day there is a sled race from Ice Landing to Lac Staint Marie down to Roberts Trading Post and back to Ice Landing: a course of 15 kilometers. Old Annie doesn't have dogs, but she has cats. Some of the kids think she is a witch. She lives alone, dressed funny and smokes a pipe. And now she sled races cats.

What could happen?

 

 

 

Kate made special book cloth for each cover of these books. Her description of the process:

The cloth is ironed and then pasted onto a sheet of very fine Japanese mulberry paper. After tapping it down carefully with a stiff brush so there are no bubbles, it is spread against a smooth surface to dry. I find these old aluminum framed windows are perfect for that. The paste is a thin cooked flour paste. Although it means pressing things to dry overnight at several stages, I have started using this home made paste for gluing the covers together and covering them with the book cloth and then putting the end papers in when the book block is inserted. I used to use glue sticks which are acid free and neat and dry very fast - but they have so much non-recyclable plastic that this is a much more environmentally friendly and traditional method. I still use the glue sticks in workshops because of time constraints.

Author & Illustrator

 

cover title labelKate Hodgson drawn portraitKate Hodgson is a founding member of Happy Leopard Chapbooks and a prolific illustratorand book designer. Starting off with our very first book, Kate has producedher playful illustrations for Grundoon Gopher & Maple Street, Thinking Now & Remembering Then, Grassland, Wind Land, Sky Land, Marion Mutala's The Time for Peace is now, and Vowel Play.

Not content with illustrating and designing Kate also writes stories. Her first books were the Edge Island books: The Pink Penguin and The Recipes from the Painted Cookie Cafe & Bistro. The St. Patrick's Day Race was inspired by a visit to La Ronge and a stay with author/illustrator Miriam Körner who is a dog musher. Kate, a cat lover, immediately began toconsider a race with cats in the traces.

 

 

 

Old Annie a small woman bundled up in a bright knitted sweater, big beaded mitts and muklunks.  Her cats have pulled her flat in the snow as they race.

Old Annie was a small woman bundled up in a bright knitted sweater and her big beaded mitts and muklunks. Her cats were determined. They ran like the North Wind. They ran like lightning. They ran like.....like scared cats.