BOOKSHELF

Every Little Scrap and Wonder: A Small-Town Childhood

By Carla Funk (Greystone Books, 2019)

There are simply some books that you inadvertently read out loud to whoever is closest—cat or human. I found myself having a giant laugh and then being unable to resist sharing long passages of Carla Funk’s memoir. Though I worried that the religious overtones might be off-putting, they make sense and are vital, as Funk’s childhood spun tightly around the Mennonite church in Vanderhoof, British Columbia, one of the earliest Mennonite settlements in the province.

There’s no such thing as a normal day—this was never an option with the full-tilt imagination and rebel-rouser ways that make Funk tick. Her kid-mind narrative on “Butcher Day” and observing a pig being “unzipped” is glibber, gristle and