Beryl YoungBeryl Young



A Boy Named Tommy Douglas
ISBN 978-1-988242-41-5

This book is also available in French, titled
La Jeunesse de Tommy Douglas

ISBN 978-2-925064-13-8

Books are available in bookstores across Canada
through Sandhill Book Marketing.

Midtown Press, Vancouver, B.C.
Available Spring, 2022
Hardcover  $19.95
Age range 5 - 10 years

Thanks to the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation
for supporting the publication of this book.

It came as a great surprise to learn that the younger generation of Canadians do not know about Tommy Douglas, the man who brought Medicare to Canada. And certainly, most children have never heard his name.

When Tommy was a boy in Winnipeg, he fell and hurt his knee. His parents couldn’t afford to seek medical help, and his knee injury led to osteomyelitis. The doctors made the frightening decision to amputate his leg. A specialist surgeon saved his leg performing the surgery at no cost. Now Tommy could run and play games again. Tommy never forgot that other children whose parents didn’t have money to pay for surgeons were not so fortunate.

Tommy became a church minister, but his dream was to become a politician and bring medical care to society. He campaigned to become a member of provincial parliament. People loved his fiery speeches and he became the premier of Saskatchewan. It took until he was fifty-seven years old when Medicare arrived for people in Saskatchewan, giving full medical care for every person.

Tommy went on to national politics and was asked to be the leader of the New Democratic Party. His dream came true when on July 1, 1968 parliament voted to bring Medicare to all of Canada.

A little-known childhood illness inspired a young boy who was not big for his age and not from a wealthy family to grow up with a dream to make an important difference to the lives of every child and adult in Canada.



A Boy Named Tommy Douglas is illustrated by Joan Steacy


Beryl Young dedicates this book to Ed Broadbent with thanks for his lifelong commitment to social democracy.

Reviews:

"A Boy Named Tommy Douglas, a well-written and illustrated biography of someone who, a hundred years after his birth was named The Greatest Canadian of All Time, merits being in all schools and public libraries."
Highly Recommended

   

Canadian Review of Materials, March, 2022

"Charming kids book tells the Tommy Douglas story.
This book would be a great gift for any child ..... to remind them what real Canadian radicalism looks like."

   

Tom Sandborn
Review: Vancouver Sun and Province

 

"A Boy Named Tommy Douglas is a well-written book with double-page illustrations that support the text ..... Fluent readers in the late primary and early intermediate grades should be able to read the book independently."

   

Canadian Teacher Magazine: Winter 2023

 

"A stroke of good fortune reverses this near tragedy, and Tommy never forgets what almost happened to him — nor about other unfortunate children with parents who couldn't afford to pay surgeons. He felt it wasn't fair, and as an adult, he set out to change this injustice."

   

BC BookWorld, Vancouver, B.C. August, 2022

 

Featured in the Canadian Children's Book Centre's BEST BOOKS for Kids and Teens 2022.

 

"Joan Steacy's detailed, emotional illustrations have a comic book style. The expressions and emotions are palpable."

   

translated from the French in Lurelu, Hiver 2023, vol.45, no3. p.58.




Leader of the New Democratic Party Jagmeet Singh with a copy of A Boy Named Tommy Douglas.
The Ontario NDP candidate for Beaches-East York, Kate Dupuis, is to his left and my friend Mary Sanderson to his right.


This original painting by Richard Widdifield of Radisson, Saskatchewan is
of Tommy Douglas, painted in 1991. The iconic painting hangs in the former
church of Tommy Douglas in Weyburn, Saskatchewan which is now
the T.C. Douglas Calvary Centre for Performing Arts.