No one’s trying to hide lights under any bushels where these two titles are concerned. Highly energetic, hard-selling text on the cover (“amazing,” “fascinating,” “astounding” and “WOW”) sets the pace. These books share a mission, promising the inside scoop on Canadian stories, and, for the most part, they deliver.

Let’s Call It Canada, the latest offering from the Wow Canada! series, tackles the background behind Canadian place names. Susan Hughes, author of Canada Invents, offers 27 chapters on themes including names associated with birds and animals, ghosts and spooks, native Canadians, black history, and royalty. One of the book’s most interesting aspects is the considerable role aboriginal language and culture have played in the naming of communities and geography across Canada.

A fast, even hectic, pace characterizes this book. Wisely, Hughes reminds readers in her introduction that they may choose to either flip randomly through the book or read it cover-to-cover. There are two reasons for taking the random approach: to offset the impact of relentless wisecracking and the blur of too many short stories running together.

Considerable effort has gone into this book’s design and illustrations. The place names associated with stories appear helpfully in bold text. Standard text is relieved by information inserted in multi-coloured rectangles, circles, and ovals, and reinforced by one or more pastel, cartoon-like illustrations on each double-page spread. Characters featured on the cover reappear as mini-photos prefacing the chapters.

Although Let’s Call It Canada doesn’t include a detailed map of Canada or a set of provincial and territorial road maps, it does have a four-page index strengthened by the inclusion of each community’s province. It also offers a page of further print and web resources for place name enthusiasts.

Made in Canada, cast in the same mould as other affordable Canadiana titles from Scholastic Canada, focuses on the accomplishments of Canadian achievers. Librarian and author Bev Spencer (You Can’t Do That in Canada: Crazy Laws from Coast to Coast) talks up 101 achievements in 11 chapters. As shown by a sampling of chapter headings (entertainment, astounding feats, fabulous foods, medical marvels, and communication contraptions), the book has a let’s-get-reading spirit. Who doesn’t want to know and take pride in the fact that the 3-D jigsaw puzzle, genetically altered spider-goats, and burpless baby bottles are all samples of Canadian inspiration and get-up-and-go?

Book design and illustration support easy-enough reading. Chapters are broken up with headlines, and text receives support from black-and-white photos and cartoons. A three-page index, and a single page each of photo credits, acknowledgments, and selected bibliography, bolster this book’s authority.

Let’s Call It Canada and Made in Canada will serve a useful purpose as inspiration and support for school projects, and additional ammunition for Canadian trivia buffs of all ages. With summer reading and vacations about to begin, flag them for summer readers and travellers, too.