I'm Not Sydney!

Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-597-7

40 pp.

Ages 3-6

March 2022

 

Why is Sydney not Sydney? It's because he's a sloth. And while his tree looks like a deciduous tree of Canada, the child imagines himself in the lushness of a tropical forest. As a sloth, he is happy to smile, sleep and daydream his days away, though his companion, Sami, scampering up the tree, sees herself as a spider monkey.

From I'm Not Sydney! by Marie-Louise Gay

As sloth and spider monkey enjoy their new personas, little Edward, ready for baseball, responds with the most charming of answers when they tell him of their exploits.

"Well, well," said Edward. "How about that?"

With that, he's down on all fours, his elephantine form disappearing into the tall grass of the savanna, feeling the sun, hearing the grasshoppers and smelling the grass and earth.

From I'm Not Sydney! by Marie-Louise Gay

Anamaria becomes an anteater and quiet Brigitte a bat and the quintet of friends play at make-believe animals until the elephant's trunk–or was that a water hose?–drenches them with water and laughter. They may return home when called for dinner by their parents but their imaginings carry them through their meals, bath time and sleep, with Brigitte even staying up, anticipating her flight into the night.

From I'm Not Sydney! by Marie-Louise Gay

Oh, to be a child with the freedom of play and imagination. For Sydney, Sami, Edward, Anamaria and Brigitte, a tree and meadow become the ground for creating a new world or two, and allows them the abandonment to visualize themselves as different in body and behaviour. They don't just pretend. They become. And Marie-Louise Gay lets us peek at them at their play, turning their realities into new worlds, as true as those in which they are called for dinner and given baths. Marie-Louise Gay, creator of the popular Stella and Sam and Princess Pistachio series, always, always, takes us to the heart of children's play of imagination, revealing both their innocence and sophistication in visualizing that which may not be there. In both words and art, she makes worlds resplendent in butterflies, caterpillars and birds among overgrown flora profuse with flowers with the children as stars in their own worlds, created or not. They are the gardeners of those daydreams, cultivating and nurturing life from whatever seeds are present. Whether those worlds last but a day or are ones they will revisit regularly is all up to them as well as the pen and watercolours of Marie-Louise Gay.

From I'm Not Sydney! by Marie-Louise Gay