The Keeper of Stars

Written by Jennifer Harris

Illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-568-6

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2024 

 

We know the bedtime routine. It usually includes getting washed, brushing teeth, dressing in pajamas, and the reading of stories. Milo's routine includes these but with a few extras, like tapping his dad's picture three times and then hitching a ride on a comet to help the Keeper of Stars. He'll have a busy night ahead.

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

What does the Keeper of Stars do? They clean up the skies, and there's a lot to clean up. There are airplane smudges, balloons, and stray feathers, but also stars that need washing and polishing. (This sweet sentiment is so reminiscent of my own father speaking about moving the clouds and shining the stars while we slept that I get a little lump in my throat.)

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

The Keeper of Stars, a large bear with a star patch upon its forehead, instructs Milo how to bathe the stars, even as they get ticklish, and then, watched over by owlets and bats, how to put back all those fallen stars which sailors use for navigation. It's a lovely playful time for Milo and the stars.

 

When they are finally done for the night, the Keeper of Stars and Milo sit down for a repast of herring sandwiches and cocoa before the child returns to his bed, not always remembering his nightly endeavours.

From The Keeper of Stars, written by Jennifer Harris, illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Most bedtime stories are filled with tenderness as little ones settle and a quiet descends. But Jennifer Harris's story has a special gentleness to it. Perhaps it's the solemnity with which Milo taps his father's photo beside his bed when sleep is nigh. Perhaps it's his mother's exhaustion as she maintains Milo's bedtime routines as she falls asleep as he slips away to join the Keeper of Stars. Perhaps it's the camaraderie of working alongside others to get a job done but still having time for a bit of joyous play. Perhaps it's all of those things. Reading The Keeper of Stars will leave young readers calm and intrigued, looking into the heavens for the big bear of Ursa Major and falling stars and even owls and bats in the night sky. And maybe even dreaming of their own celestial adventures.

 

Toronto's Dorothy Leung, who illustrated When the Wind Came and The Bird Feeder, uses a style of art that enhances Jennifer Harris's sensitive story. She uses pencil and gouache, as well as Photoshop, to create images that are both ni and grounded, taking readers into the heavens but from the familiarity of a child's room at bedtime. Even when juggling the stars and arranging them into messages, Milo has an earnestness about him. He is quiet and busy, doing what he must but recognizing the joy in what he is doing, for himself and others. Dorothy Leung gives him an inner serenity which, considering his focus on his father's photo, would be a challenge for many. She brings the quiet and takes away the fears of the night, through her choice of colours, the softness of her shapes, and the expressive lines of her characters, which include the stars.

 

If you have a little one who needs to be drawn gently into the world of sleep, The Keeper of Stars will do just that. It will take them in hand to dream of nightly duties by joining those who populate our heavens and add sparkle to our lives. It will help them sail into the calm of sleep and the respite of the tireless.

The Bird Feeder

Written by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated Dorothy Leung

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0483-5

40 pp.

Ages 3-7

October 2022

As I watch the birds seek food at our feeders–2 nyjer feeders, a hopper, a tray and two suet holders–I am reminded how much joy is derived from just watching the birds. It's sitting back and observing their feeding, their interactions with other birds, and making a connection with the natural world, often from the confines of our man-made one. But this connection can be far greater than at first glance as Andrew Larsen shows us in his latest picture book The Bird Feeder.

From The Bird Feeder by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Dorothy Leung

After their grandmother comes to live with them, a child spends special time with her: chatting about their secret wishes, drawing, and enjoying the birds at the bird feeder Grandma brought with her. But when Grandma is taken into hospice, the child is initially bereft, not wanting to fill the bird feeder as they'd done for her.

From The Bird Feeder by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Dorothy Leung

After seeing the big picture window in Grandma's hospice room, the child surprises their grandmother by hanging the bird feeder on the tree outside.

"Oh, my! says Grandma. "You brought the birds!"

Together they watch the birds, eat purple Jell-O, draw, and visit with Suki, the therapy dog. And the next spring, as three tiny beaks poke out of a nest, Grandma passes.

From The Bird Feeder by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Dorothy Leung

In a touching story of a special grandmother-grandchild connection and the cycle of life, Andrew Larsen shows us that even in great sadness there can be joy and comfort. With that extraordinary bond between the two generations comes learning, art, togetherness, and support. Both give and take from the other, filling their lives with affection and contentment. And though Grandma is in hospice, that connection is re-established via a bird feeder, which gives Grandma solace and the two of them a link of focus, purpose, and appreciation. I must admit that I shed a tear with Grandma's passing, so subtly handled with Andrew Larsen's text that evokes love and loss without the fear and despair that often accompany death. It's this simplicity of message and story that Dorothy Leung emulates in her digital artwork. There is a clarity in her illustrations that conveys tenderness and caring and family while giving readers just enough detail in a framed family photo or leaves on a tree or weariness on a face to scaffold a memorable story.

I know there are birds in the story, but The Bird Feeder is more than a grandmother and grandchild sharing a love of birds. There is an intimacy here that transcends all. It's a tender story of life and love and the blessings that come with both.

When the Wind Came

Written by Jan Andrews

Illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0339-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

June 2022

 

When the Wind Came is a story of reminiscences. Its narrator, a pig-tailed child who loves to read, recalls how life was on their family farm. It may be a different time, with a mother pulling out weeds by hand and with an earthen root cellar for storing food, but its story is one for all time. 

From When the Wind Came by Jan Andrews, illus. by Dorothy Leung

Living on a farm, a child remembers her father tending the cattle, her mother weeding with a baby playing on a blanket nearby. She also remembers that baby brother whimpering endlessly while she reads beneath a tree. And then the wind comes and everything changes.

I remember my mother

grabbing up my baby brother.

I remember her running 

with him in her arms.

 

I remember my father opening

the door to the root cellar.

She remembers the darkness and the silence, and then coming out to witness the destruction of that wind. 

Our home was gone

when we came out.

From When the Wind Came by Jan Andrews, illus. by Dorothy Leung

As they attempt to retrieve anything that might have survived, her mother cobbles together some food, and it is the child's job to clean the dishes.

I don't know why I did it.

I wasn't even thinking.

Maybe I was crying.

Maybe tears were running down my cheeks.

What she did was make bubbles.

We may hear of devastating storms more nowadays because of media reporting and people sharing on social media but those catastrophes have always been there and those who've endured them do just that. They endure. They pick themselves up and get on with things. Even with unfathomable destruction and losses, they try to go on. They find food and do dishes and maybe even have a laugh before they leave it all behind. And Jan Andrews takes us into their family and their pain and their tenacity. She makes us feel the child's frustration with a wailing baby, the force of the storm, and the ruination of their home. She also gives us a family living off the land, accepting nature's unpredictability, and always showing resilience.

The youngCanLit world lost a literary legend when Jan Andrews passed unexpectedly in 2017. She could write it all: picture books, middle grade, short stories, and young adult novels. She was always a storyteller (first president of the Storytellers of Canada) who'd won the Silver Birch Express Award in 2012 for When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean, was awarded the Order of Canada, and was nominated for multiple Governor General's Literary Awards. Even five years from her passing, we have another extraordinary tale of resilience housed in a story of tragedy. The storm that brings the wind and destroys the family farm is pivotal but it's the response to that catastrophe that is the true story. It's a story of seeing beyond the dark, finding a lightness in that gloom. The wind may have brought destruction and despair but it also revealed that which was there all along: resilience. It was creating sparkles of joy from soap, bubbles that entertained and distracted and changed nothing and changed everything. From something little during something monumental, faith for a future was found.

Dorothy Leung is a new pencil (and paint) creator in children's book illustration and she impresses with her take on this important story. The vastness of the farm setting, the force of that storm, and the normality of a family's response are all evident through her use of colour and shape. The contrast of the dryness of those fields and the power of that destructive wind is almost tactile, and definitely convincing. She has fortified Jan Andrews's story with her art.

We will continue to hear about devastating weather and its impact on communities but Jan Andrews and Dorothy Leung's picture book shows us that, when the winds come, there will always be stories to tell of resilience and possibility.