Do You Wonder?

Written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards

North Winds Press (Imprint of Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-8276-8

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

September 2022

We all wonder and ask questions. Sometimes it's about the small things like what we'll have for dinner that night or sometimes it's about bigger things like whether we're making the right decisions. And occasionally some of us ask the really monumental questions about the universe. Regardless, they are all important because these questions make us mindful of what we and others are experiencing which can only lead to greater compassion, understanding and creativity. Award-winning author and illustrator Wallace Edwards guides us through some important questions to reveal what it is we may be wondering about.

From Do You Wonder? by Wallace Edwards

In a series of single-page and double-page spreads, Wallace Edwards tells young readers some of the things he has wondered about. 

Sometimes I wonder about the mysteries of the sky. 

Sometimes I wonder why some songs make me happy.  

Sometimes I wonder how to join the conversation.

These ponderings are all ones that we have. But then Wallace Edwards takes on bigger inquiries.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right puppet show. 

Sometimes I wonder who was here before me.  

Sometimes I wonder if I really see what I think I see.

The depth and breadth of his meditations run the gamut from the playful (e.g., Sometimes I wonder where the banana went) to those of self-awareness (e.g., Sometimes I wonder if I can finish what I've started) or global awareness (e.g., Sometimes I wonder who decides what is important). His thoughtfulness is profound and I stopped on many pages to ponder the answers. I often had none but the wondering was sufficient. It required a focus to the question and a mindfulness of all that it encompassed. The answer was not necessary; what was important was the curiosity and the inquiry.

From Do You Wonder? by Wallace Edwards

Ah, but this is Wallace Edwards, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Illustrations and numerous other picture book awards, so the text is married to extraordinary artwork, rendered here in pencil, watercolour and gouache. Even without the text, the art would be sublime, detailed in its depictions of animals that range from a barn owl, alligators, a rhino and elephants to a variety of bird species, as well as in the scenes filled with balloon animals, ice cream, vegetation and ornate furniture. There is so much to look at and to delve into. (Check out the faces in the forest on the cover of Do You Wonder? for a sampling.) But it's not "just" the art. It's the way Wallace Edwards's words are interpreted in his art. For example, the text "Sometimes I wonder why some things seem so difficult" is paired with a porcupine struggling to create balloon animals, having popped numerous balloons that hang off of his quills. Readers can think about challenges in their own lives, whether a struggle with school or with friends and family or even with health. But the artwork asks young readers to look beyond themselves and recognize that others too have challenges that may not be obvious until they are exposed. Of course a porcupine would struggle with balloons! But until I saw that illustration, it never occurred to me.

From Do You Wonder? by Wallace Edwards

Thank you, Wallace Edwards, for helping us see ourselves and others and beyond ourselves. Thank you for inviting us into your considerations and encouraging us to do the same. And thank you for reminding us that there are somethings, like love, that never need to be questioned.