Illustrated by Mike Deas
Red Deer Press
978-0-88995-746-6
64 pp.
Ages 6-8
November 2024
Like all skills, literacy develops at its own pace for the learner. For some children, the step between seeing shapes and deciphering into letters and then words comes earlier. For others, whether because of readiness or learning disability or even opportunity, the ability to read may come later. For Liam, it's not coming fast enough, especially when he has a charming book about a mouse and a bunch of cats–his family has cats!– and he wants to know what's happening.
From Two Tales of Twenty-Six: Liam and the Letters, written by Stephanie McLellan, illustrated by Mike Deas |
From Two Tales of Twenty-Six: Liam and the Letters, written by Stephanie McLellan, illustrated by Mike Deas |
One letter at a time could turn impossible into possible. (pg. 15, Liam and the Letters)
From Two Tales of Twenty-Six: Liam and the Letters, written by Stephanie McLellan, illustrated by Mike Deas |
Now, he can read the story that the reader can also read, simply by turning the book over. Walter and the World is the story of the mouse and the cats that Liam could not read. Walter the mouse has his own issues, with twenty-six cats whom he must evade if he's going to explore the outside world. Both Liam and Walter have twenty-six entities standing between them and what they crave, whether reading or an opportunity for exploration. Their stories may be different, but they are connected and ultimately even linked.
From Two Tales of Twenty-Six: Walter and the World, written by Stephanie McLellan, illustrated by Mike Deas |
Flip books can be problematic for libraries, particularly for cataloguing, but Two Tales of Twenty-Six will not be so. It will just be a fuller story, told from two different layers, that of a story character and that of a reader. For each, Stephanie Simpson McLellan who is a star of storytelling–my particular faves are The Christmas Wind and The Sorry Life of Timothy Shmoe–gives us a character who is faced with a challenge of twenty-six and tackles it with strategy and perseverance and ultimately success. It's two feel-good stories in one package.
To make it even more enticing for early readers–other than giving them a story with which they will be familiar–Two Tales of Twenty-Six is illustrated by Mike Deas, giving these young readers the graphic support to help them read and understand their reading. Mike Deas's art uses a blend of gouache, watercolour, ink, and digital tools to both support and enhance the stories, giving Liam the reader a starting point for his reading, and the reader of Two Tales of Twenty-Six the colour and the magic to make understanding possible and worthwhile.
I'm usually not enamoured with tête-bêche books but Two Tales of Twenty-Six is more than the sum of its parts and that's why it's extraordinary. It's a book that is geared to its audience perfectly, encouraging our youngest children in their reading, especially if they are frustrated, and allowing them to see themselves in a story while taking a step up in their reading from picture books.
• • • • • • •
I'm very pleased to tell you about the book launch party for Two Tales of Twenty-Six
that will be held on
Saturday, November 30, 2024
from 10 -11 AM
at
Little Rae Goode
477 Timothy St.
Newmarket, ON
This book launch will include:
• a book reading
• a contest for best mouse face mask
• free cookies
• giveaways
and
• book signing by the author Stephanie McLellan