A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests

Written by Caroline Adderson

Illustrated by Lauren Tamaki

Groundwood Books

978-1-773068930

32 pp.

Ages 3–7

October 2025

 

In the 1600s,  the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō wrote a poem titled, "The Old Pond." This is Caroline Adderson's charming imagining of how that haiku may have been created on the spot. And with Lauren Tamaki's acrylic ink illustrations, readers will be transported to a Japan of contemplative art to hear and smell and see that which is memorable at the pond.

From A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests, written by Caroline Adderson, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki

One evening, the poet Bashō goes for a walk and rests by a pond. A carp, a lily, and a mosquito are all attracted to the poet who closes his eyes to quiet thought. One by one, these living organisms attempt to get the poet's attention, hopeful that he might include them in the poem he was sure to be bringing to life in his mind.

 

First, the carp dances and flutters her tail, determined that her loveliness in the moonlight might be noticed by Bashō. But even calling out, "O Bashō! Look at me!" does not trigger the poet to open his eyes.

From A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests, written by Caroline Adderson, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki

The water lily first notices the antics of the carp and then the poet sitting on the bank of the pond. Wondering if he might be immortalized somehow, the lily concentrates his efforts to send the perfume of his flower to grab Bashō's attention. Still Bashō does not react, though a mosquito does notice the scent of the lily. Convinced that her life could fill a book of poetry, the mosquito also attempts to captivate the poet.

 

Finally, a frog who is preparing for his midnight swim decides not to be discouraged by the "Flashing fish, lavish lily, megalomaniacal mosquito, pensive poet" and jumps in, giving Bashō the inspiration for his famous haiku.

 

And so, a six-word haiku is born. Though the frog is the star of Bashō's poem, Caroline Adderson's story is more about the exhibitionism of the carp, the lily, and the mosquito that attempt to grab Bashō's attention. They get most of the story just as attention-seeking individuals usually demand most of the consideration through their efforts. The frog, on the other hand, is unconcerned with anything but its own business, and as such becomes immortalized in the poem of elegance and ordinariness. Caroline Adderson gives us a big story for a very simple poem and reminds all those who are Look-At-Me people—you know the ones that always demand attention and recognition—that fame doesn't have to come from the ego but rather from the lack thereof. The natural beauty of that frog just going about its business is far more notable than the extreme actions of some other self-absorbed organisms.

From A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests, written by Caroline Adderson, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki

Artist Lauren Tamaki—yes, she is related to graphic novel artist Jillian Tamaki—has the perfect subtlety of style and medium to help tell the story of a poet and his inspiration. And with a Japanese backdrop, Lauren Tamaki gives Caroline Adderson's A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests the essence of traditional sumi-e (black ink painting) but with loads of colour. Still, with the ink on watercolour paper (I presume), the art evokes a dynamic essence to the landscape, so in keeping with the textures and fluidity of a pond.

 

If I was still a teacher, I would love to use A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests as a wonderful introduction to haiku and to finding inspiration for writing poetry. (For older kids, I'd definitely let them recreate scenarios for inspiring other poems.) But I'd also sneak in a discussion about attention-grabbing behaviour and the need for fame as character education never goes amiss. Even without its teachable potential, A Pond, a Poet, and Three Pests will provide a beautiful and evocative rendering of how the natural world can hearten us with contemplation, beauty, and inspiration.

Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories

Written by Caroline Adderson
Groundwood Books
978-1-77306-572-4
176 pp.
Ages 8-12
August 2021

 

The world may be living under the shadow of the same pandemic but our stories are so different. In Sunny Days Inside and Other Stories, author Caroline Adderson takes us into one community, that of a Vancouver low-rise apartment building, and shares the stories of its residents from the eyes of its youth.

Sunny Days Inside relates the story of Danila's family who were finally going on a plane holiday to Días de Sol (Sunny Days) resort in Baja, Mexico, courtesy of her grandmother. Because of the disparity in wealth between their family and her mother's sister, a woman who travels extensively, the holiday becomes a source of conflict, with the children's aunt heading out on a cruise days before they leave. Then the pandemic hits. Danila's family makes their own indoor holiday but it's tinged with sorrow and guilt when her aunt gets COVID-19 on the ship.

Brothers Alek and Ivan decide they're going to become cave men, after all the barbershops close, in the story How to Be a Cave Family. All the strategies that Palaeolithic beings used to survive, from being afraid of everybody, to hunting and gathering and developing their own language, become their guide to getting through the pandemic.

In Reo and Juliet, Grade 7 peers from apartments 3D and 4B become friends across their balconies as Reo, the athlete, struggles with how to train and Juliet works at overcoming her shyness.

In the following four stories–I Like Your Tie, The Entrepreneur's Bible, The Two Harriets, and The Incredible Escaping Bra Man–young people are challenged with parents who are front-line workers, or those who have lost their jobs or closed businesses, or those impacted by illness, including cancer and anxiety. The kids make new friends, become spies and save a resident's life, and face their own fears about the virus, their families and friends, and their new realities. And it's all while adhering to lockdowns and pre-vaccine protocols.

In the final story, Imagine, the young residents and one special one come together in a socially-distanced and rebellious act that brings them together safely and outside.

Caroline Adderson has always written powerful stories (e.g., Very Serious Children, 2007; Middle of Nowhere, 2012; Norman, Speak!, 2014), though with a smidgen of humour that never distracts from serious issues like abandonment, parenting, foster care, and now COVID-19. Told from a variety of perspectives, the pandemic is viewed as an adventure, a source of fear and anxiety, an opportunity, or even a challenge. We've got kids who worry about their parents, who become superheroes, and those who gain perspective on their pre-pandemic lives. They are all different, as are their stories, but somehow young readers will recognize every one them and their issues, sure to see themselves within. These middle-graders are shy and athletic, Deaf and hearing, silly and serious, anxious and confident. Whether annoyed with a younger or older sibling, cooperating with working or non-working parents, cheering the lack of haircuts, or finding new ways to communicate without congregating, these kids are living through this pandemic. In fact, they're staring it in the face, mask securely on and two metres apart, and reclaiming their lives, albeit new configurations of them.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat: Guest blog review

Today's review has been submitted by Grade 6 student Bronte L.

Written by Caroline Adderson
Illustrated by Stacy Innerst
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-964-5
128 pp.
Ages 8-11
April 2019

In The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat by Caroline Adderson, Pudding Tat is a blind cat who explores 1900s North America, travelling from Wellington County to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Atlantic City, the Titanic and the Western Front of World War I, with the help of a needy flea.

When Pudding Tat was a little kitten, living in a barn with his family, he decides he would explore the four corners of the world like his ancestors. Pudding Tat may have been blind but his hearing was exceptional. His family couldn’t hear the drunken conversations of the fleas, but he could. Before Pudding Tat leaves the barn to explore the four corners of the world, a flea decides to jump into his ear. This flea was different from the other crazy drunken fleas in that he had taste, though he was bossy, rude, and constantly complaining.  Yet Pudding Tat never gets rid of him because the flea provides him sight, and it’s nice to have some company while exploring the world. As Pudding Tat travels from location to location, he encounters lots of kind owners who care for him while he gives them joy.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventure Cat is great for grades 5 to 8. It’s full of adventure and fun as well as including “mostly true” accounts of famous North American events. The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat has 179 pages, making a great light read, with each chapter a new adventure for Pudding Tat and the flea.

I love the concept of the book and the idea that the same visually-impaired cat was a part of all these events and changed peoples' lives. I also found the way Pudding Tat was able to find his way around using his other senses and the flea was very creative. The descriptions were great while not being wordy and I was able to visualize what was going on clearly. I also loved how Caroline Adderson added songs into her writing. I would give Caroline Adderson’s The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat  9 out of 10.

~written by Bronte L.

The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat

Written by Caroline Adderson

Illustrated by Stacy Innerst

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-964-5

128 pp.

Ages 8-11

April 2019

Pudding Tat, so named for the special dessert Farmer Willoughby brought to his Wellington County barn cats on Christmas Day, was always a concern for his mother. White as snow and eyes as pink as his tongue, Pudding could not catch mice or avoid dangers as well as Mother Tat had taught her kittens. But, when his siblings are pushed to leave the barn, Pudding literally gets a flea in his ear that encourages him to do the same. That flea, tired of the loud partying of the others, steers Pudding to water, hopeful of drowning his fellow parasites, while keeping the cat safe as a host. 

From The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat by Caroline Adderson, illus. by Stacy Innerst

With each new chapter, Pudding and his flea evolve, developing their relationship from one based in parasitism to one of mutualism. Their first major adventure starts in 1901 when they join Annie Edson Taylor for her barrel ride over Niagara Falls. Next, Pudding and his flea travel to Buffalo, New York, and the site of the Pan-American Exposition. En route, they see the discrimination levelled against the African American railway porters and the indentured child street musicians. They are present when President McKinley is shot and when Vincent Bryan and Gus Edwards compose “In My Merry Oldsmobile” – a tribute to Gus’s new car. In 1910, they’re on-board as Walter Wellman and his crew attempt their first cross-Atlantic airship flight. They even survive the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and a crossing into No Man’s Land at the beginning of the famous Christmas Truce during World War I. While they experience long periods of confinement and hunger, there are moments of opulence, filled with comfort and food. And there is always music to which Pudding Tat is drawn. Relying so much on his hearing, he is lured by songs sung and instruments played, taking him into new circumstances, sometimes comfortable, sometimes perilous. In the end, cat and flea make their way home, having defied all expectations had for and by the visually-impaired feline.

Caroline Adderson, author of award-winning books for adults and children – including Middle of Nowhere (Groundwood, 2012) – blends the right mix of history and fictional narrative to create a story of cooperation, resiliency and risk-taking. She gives Pudding Tat the voice of a modest but heartfelt hero, albeit an accidental one, who experiences big adventures but is surprised by his exploits. He really is a feline Forrest Gump. His poor eyesight and lack of camouflage may make him vulnerable but it doesn’t stop him from living beyond them. With Stacy Innerst’s multi-panelled graphics detailing the breadth of Pudding Tat’s adventures in each chapter, it’s clear that, like the period of innovation in which he lived, the white feline reached beyond his potential and achieved more than expected.

🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈

(A version of this review was originally written and paid for by Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2019, May 7). Review of the book The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat. Quill & Quire. https://quillandquire.com/review/the-mostly-true-story-of-pudding-tat-adventuring-cat/

Norman, Speak!

by Caroline Adderson

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-322-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

Release April, 2014

It takes a big heart to adopt a stray at a shelter because he's been there the longest.  And the joy he exudes, wagging his whole rump, is so clear that the young boy and his parents are sure that they've made a good choice.  Norman is funny, he's friendly, and he's happy.  However, his lack of responsiveness to their commands have them thinking that, "He just wasn't very smart."

But an incident in the park reveals that smartness isn't what Norman lacks: it's English.  His language of understanding is Chinese!  Admirably, mom, dad and son sign up for Chinese classes at the local church.  Surprisingly, "We didn't feel very smart the next Saturday morning in the basement of the church.  Or the Saturday after that.  All the other kids were smart."

Fortunately, Norman loves them anyway.

With Norman, Speak!, award-winning author Caroline Adderson has expanded her repertoire from early readers (Very Serious Children, Scholastic Canada, 2007), middle-grade fiction (Middle of Nowhere, Groundwood, 2012), young adult fiction (Film Studies, Annick, 2010) and adult fiction (The Sky is Falling, Thomas Allen Publishers, 2010) into picture books and we're so glad she has.  Her versatility has provided her the skills to tell important stories in age-appropriate media.  And with Qin Leng's familiar colourful, but never bold, fountain brush and ink illustrations, the message of "smartness" not being equal to understanding is told without judgement or fear.

This message is an important one for children to learn, especially if they perceive that they themselves are not regarded as smart.  This would be especially hard to deal with if that impression is given by a parent or teacher or other respected individual.  Too often, we misjudge and attribute lack of comprehension to lack of intelligence.  Wrong!  Caroline Adderson brings this revelation to Norman's people slowly but they get it in the end. They may have been quick to judge Norman but they learn soon enough that understanding has nothing to do with "smarts" but rather familiarity and regular opportunities for practice. Thankfully Norman doesn't hold their lack of Chinese against them.  Ultimately they are a perfect match, like Caroline Adderson's text and Qin Leng's illustrations, but one based in acceptance, not achievement.

Middle of Nowhere

by Caroline Adderson

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-132-8

214 pp.

Ages 8-12

2012

Nowhere is a place like no other.  It seems endless, remote and isolated (even more than the beautiful British Columbia of Middle of Nowhere).  If you have hold of someone’s hand when in nowhere, it doesn’t seem so bad.  But what if the hand is absent, and someone else is practically pulling off your hand looking for support?  Do you let nowhere swallow you or do you look for a new hand? Can you choose poorly or is every option viable?

Curtis Schlanka is only 12 but he seems like a boy who has already lived through a lot.  He was five-and-a-half years old when his mother took off after her boyfriend, Gerry, leaving Curtis’ kindergarten teacher to contact Social Services.  At the Pennypackers’ foster home, he had to endure nasty bullying from their nine-year-old son, Brandon, until Curtis’ mother returned and proved she was a fit mother to her new baby, Artie, and was able to take Curtis home too.  She was working hard at getting her high-school equivalency while working the night shift at Pay-N-Save, and doing her best to provide for her two sons. 

So when she doesn’t come home, Curtis is pretty sure, ten out of ten, that she’ll be back.  Coincidentally, the elderly woman in the house next door, Mrs. Burt, injures her hip and recruits Curtis to run some errands for her.  Mrs. Burt and Curtis soon recognize the mutual benefit of helping each other.  After the police are called in (since their apartment’s rent didn’t get paid), the boys stay hidden at Mrs. Burt’s, aiming to evade Social Services.  Happily, they avoid the authorities while helping Mrs. Burt too, who enjoys mothering the boys, especially five-and-a-half year old Artie, whose screaming and crying fits subside with her TLC. 

With school almost finished, Mrs. Burt suggests going up to her cabin for a holiday, all the while assuring Curtis that he can keep trying to contact his mom should she return.   So, in her 1957 Chevy Bel Air, they travel to the remote cabin where the boys are nourished by the sun, Mrs. Burt’s great cooking and lots of activity, including swimming, fishing and gardening.  While Artie grows emotionally closer to Mrs. Burt, Curtis begins to suspect that she has her own agenda, confirmed when summer turns to fall and they do not return for school.

As manipulative as Mrs. Burt may sound, she is nothing more than an elderly woman who lives on her own and isn’t very mobile but refuses help or even advice from her “Big Shot” daughter in Toronto.  The boys’ missing mother provides Mrs. Burt with an opportunity to be valuable and in control again.  Mrs. Burt never harms the boys, only cares for them as she would her own grandchildren, but Curtis realizes that they are relinquishing control to her, giving up the opportunity to connect with their mom (which is all they wanted when avoiding Social Services). 

The nowhere of the boys’ lives could be the remoteness of the cabin, as Curtis realizes when there is nowhere to go for help; it could be the untethered nature of their relationship, which provides them only with superficial supports of food, shelter and parenting; or it could be a temporal nowhere, neither at the beginning or middle or end, never knowing how many sleeps until Mom returns.   Ultimately Curtis realizes that Mrs. Burt is in a nowhere of her own: between a life filled with working in a lumber camp, caring for her family, and being an independent woman to one of reliance, immobility, seclusion and death.  Caroline Adderson’s storytelling emotionally engages the reader in Curtis’, Artie’s and Mrs. Burt’s fears of their nowheres, while offering hope about the nowhere in which the boys’ mother exists.  Curtis’ voice is distinct, both trusting and hesitant, well-balanced with the tone of the narrative, as he learns that nowhere is just a product of a flawed perception.  Nowhere is always somewhere – the chances are ten out of ten.