Go Home Bay

by Susan Vande Griek

Illustrated by Pascal Milelli

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-701-6

32 pp.

Ages 6-9

April 2016

Groundwood Books was recently honoured by being named the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and Go Home Bay is another title in its worthy collection,  demonstrating why Groundwood Books received this award.

From Go Home Bay
by Susan Vande Griek and Pascal Milelli

Go Home Bay, the story, is loosely based on the events that took place during the summer of 1914 on Go Home Bay in Georgian Bay.  Canadian artist Tom Thomson, who became one of Canada’s best-known artists, was invited by a patron, Dr. James MacCallum, to stay at his cottage.  While there, Thomson taught MacCallum’s young daughter, Helen, to paint.  This is their story.

In expressive free verse, as redolent as Pascal Milelli’s illustrations are of Thomson’s own artwork, Susan Vande Griek shares the arrival and introduction of the artist to the young girl, who watches his outdoor routines of campfire cooking, fishing, canoeing and, of course, painting with quiet appreciation.  Then, one day, he encourages her to paint with him: wildflowers, a rowboat, his canoe, Go Home Bay, a pine tree.

Wild the west wind blows. 

“Quick!” Tom calls.

“Let’s paint a pine." 

And down by the shore, 

clothes flapping, as we go.

Dark clouds cluster,

The air blusters and puffs. 

Tom points and shouts,

“See how the branches 

sway and bend.” 

So we paint them out over the water,

west wind sent,

trees that are forever

west wind bent. (pg. 22)

This extraordinary summer of Tom Thomson guiding Helen’s eyes to see and her hands to paint was immortalized in several of his key artworks, including The West Wind and Boathouse, Go Home Bay, but the experience and memories with which Helen MacCallum was left were far greater than just the painting he gives her. 

From Go Home Bay
by Susan Vande Griek, illus. by Pascal Milelli

What an experience to have learned to paint from one of the greats of the Canadian art world and to have listened to patron and benefactor discuss art and other important issues of the day.  Susan Vande Griek tells of that summer with the transcendent calm of a respite at the cottage when time is endless and warmth is embracing.  A time of inspiration and inspiring.   The text is replendent in colours and textures, much like Pascal Milelli’s bold, homagic illustrations evocative of Tom Thomson’s own style of painting.  Pascal Milelli’s art, already recognized with an Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award, is rich in earthy greens and terra cotta, turquoises and blues of expansive water and sky.  Like Tom Thomson, Pascal Milelli uses of ribbons of colour to produce layering within the landscape and its components, creating softness and movement.  The illustrations paint a serenity and a magic of a time and place long gone but ever remembered.

Go Home Bay is an auspicious addition to my recent Art in youngCanLit booklist, joining its sister book by Susan Vande Griek and Pascal Milelli, The Art Room (Groundwood, 2002), as an important children's picture about an legendary Canadian artist.

Deadly Voyage: RMS Titanic, Jamie Laidlaw, Crossing the Atlantic, 1912

Written by Hugh Brewster

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-0465-4

195 pp.

Ages 9-13

2011

Often the voices of the young are rarely heard when major current events occur.  Children and young teens are "protected" by adults who negate their comments, minimize their value or, worse, ignore them completely.  However, as Hugh Brewster demonstrates in Deadly Voyage, the observations and assessments of young Jamie Laidlaw provide a different perspective on the Titanic and its sinking, and perhaps a more accurate one.

Jamie Laidlaw, 14, has been living in England with his parents for the past two years, by virtue of his father's job with the Imperial Bank.  Now, they are returning home to Montreal, with his mom's maid, Rosalie, and their Airedale terrier, Max.  Boarding the RMS Titanic on April 10, 1912 at Southampton, his parents make the acquaintance of numerous wealthy patrons, including Major Peuchen, Mr. Molson (of brewery and banking fame), and Mr. and Mrs. Fortune and their older children from Winnipeg.  Jamie, on the other hand, makes the acquaintance of several passengers who will disembark at Ireland, including eleven-year-old Jack Odell.  As boys will be, Jamie and Jack explore throughout the ship, providing a first-hand account of the design and opulence of the Titanic, from third-class to first-class accommodations, to the different dining rooms, the pool, the Turkish baths, the squash courts and the fully-outfitted gymnasium, and even to the Marconi room from which wireless messages are amazingly sent.  After Jack's departure, Jamie makes a new friend over the animal kennels where Max is being housed.  Johnnie Ryerson is an American boy (with a pet rat he's stowed away on board) who is returning to the States with his family for the funeral of his oldest brother.  Johnnie's curiosity gets the two boys in trouble with their families, as they entertain themselves with some of the Titanic's distractions and pursuing the runaway rat.

When the ship hits the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, Jamie's youthful perspective, even after having to put on his life jacket, watching young men kick a chunk of ice around like a soccer ball, is to think, "But imagine this happening to a brand new ship!  What bad luck!" (pg. 78)  However, his optimism flags after watching the few lifeboats get loaded with passengers and observing the courage and cowardice evident amongst the passengers and crew.  While his mother wants him to board a lifeboat, Jamie insists on staying behind to look after his father.  (Johnnie, however, is forced by his father to join his mother and sisters on a lifeboat, a decision that will haunt Johnnie forever.)  Left on the ship with his father, Jamie seems to come-of-age, standing shoulder to shoulder with men to prevent others from clambering into the lifeboats, helping to release another lifeboat, and ultimately, as "every man for himself", plunging himself into a huge wave to get clear of the sinking ship.

Hugh Brewster, whose award-winning non-fiction and fiction emphasize key historical events in Canada's past, demonstrates how to take a well-recorded subject (i.e., the sinking of the Titanic) and see it from a different and fresh perspective.  By giving young Jamie a voice, as he grows from a boy to a young man, and later as a grandfather looking back at the events, Deadly Voyage epitomizes the experiences of the Titanic passengers and others affected by the tragedy.  Coupled with the historical notes, glossary, and photographs, Deadly Voyage provides a comprehensive fictional non-fiction exposé of the Titanic's sinking, which only a seasoned writer such as Hugh Brewster could have produced.

***

Look for additional news about Titanic presentations and book lists in the next week, all in preparation for commemorating, on April 15, 2012, the 100th anniversary of its sinking.