I Am Canada: A Celebration

Written by Heather Patterson

Illustrated by Jeremy Tankard, Ruth Ohi, 
Barbara Reid, Jon Klassen, 
Marie-Louise Gay, Danielle Daniel, 

Ashley Spires, Geneviève Côté, 

Cale Atkinson, Doretta Groenendyk,
Qin Leng, Eva Campbell and
Irene Luxbacher

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-6304-0

Ages 3+

32 pp.

May 2017

With Canada celebrating 150 years since Confederation in 1867, there will be a plethora of books published solely for the purpose of memorializing that historic milestone for our relatively new country.  Though there has and will be sufficient backlash for praising the birth of a nation amidst the traditional habitation of this land by its Indigenous Peoples, I like to think that we can simply celebrate our land as it is, warts and all, as a glorious amalgamation of peoples and cultures.  This picture book, based on the poem by Heather Patterson and illustrated by thirteen outstanding illustrators, does just that.

The poem, written by Heather Patterson in 1996 and originally put to photographic interpretation (Scholastic Canada, 2006) reads as follows (I've separated lines as they appear in this edition; any errors are solely mine):

I am Canada.

I run, I swim,

I skate, I dance.

I skim over snow

on my toboggan.

I have space.

I read, I learn,

I draw, I dream.

I stay out late and see the

northern lights.

I have time.

I watch, I touch, I listen.

I make up my mind.

I decide to build a castle.

I am free.

I am Canada.

I am cool in summer

and cozy in winter.

I am springing in the spring

and floppy in the fall.

I eat pizza and pierogis

and peppers.

I eat meatballs and muffins

and mangos.

I am quiet,

I am curious,

I am friendly,

I am funny.

I explain, I explore, I enjoy,

I share, I sing, I celebrate.

I am Canada.

Each artist prepared a double-spread illustration to correspond with 1-4 lines of the poem and it's a delightful interpretation and showcase of Canada and its artistry by way of its creators, its landscape and its people.

Portion of illustration by Jeremy Tankard

in I Am Canada: A Celebration

by Heather Patterson

Jeremy Tankard, author-illustrator of Grumpy Bird and Hungry Bird, begins with a drawing of children hiking outdoors heading towards a blazing maple tree.  Ruth Ohi, author of recently reviewed Fox and Squirrel The Best Christmas Ever, brings a lightness of touch in style and content with everyone–families, pets, wildlife–enjoying the outdoors.  Plasticine artist Barbara Reid (Sing a Song of Bedtime) lends her craftsmanship to a winter scene of tobogganing, reminiscent of her award-winning Perfect Snow. Transplanted Canadian Jon Klassen (This is My Hat) focuses on his own outdoor scene of a lone house among bare winter trees amidst the wide open spaces of pristine snow, touched by a single child.  

Creator of Stella and Sam and Princess Pistachio, Marie-Louise Gay plays on the imaginative play that comes from books and learning with daydreaming children envisioning clouds of animals and skies of seas.  Danielle Daniel who burst onto the youngCanLit scene with her award-winning Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox honours our northern regions with a display of brilliant northern lights enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike.  Ashley Spires, author of Binky the Space Cat and The Thing Lou Couldn't Do, moves us to the warmth of a summer on B.C.'s shores for rest and recreation on the sand and in the water.

Simplest of all illustrations is award-winning artist Geneviève Côté's depiction of freedom, a child riding a blue loon embellished with a northern, a forested and an aquatic environments.  Her art, seen in her Mr. King and Piggy and Bunny series, has everything about Canada in the subtlest of depictions.

Illustration by Cale Atkinson 

in I Am Canada: A Celebration 

by Heather Patterson

But there's still more.  Cale Atkinson, illustrator of Vikki VanSickle's If I Had a Gryphon, lends his artwork to an exposé of Canada's four seasons and Doretta Groenendyk (A Harbour Seal in Halifax) provides a multicultural smorgasbord for a diversity of peoples and other animals.  (Have fun picking out all the foods displayed. I counted at least 17!) Perfect for the quiet stylings of prolific illustrator Qin Leng (A Family is a Family is a Family) is a spread about a walk in the woods of Mount Royal in the fall.  Eva Campbell, who illustrated Eric Walters' The Matatu, celebrates exploration and fireworks in her illustration.

Illustration by Qin Leng 

in I Am Canada: A Celebration 

by Heather Patterson

The culminating illustration is from Irene Luxbacher (Mr. Frank) and is perfection as the finale, with a blending of landscapes, indoor and out, and the anticipation of travel across this country.

Portion of illustration by Irene Luxbacher 

in I Am Canada: A Celebration 

by Heather Patterson

While Heather Patterson's words set the tone, it's the artwork of these Canadian illustrators that gives them substance and context.  I Am Canada is truly a celebration of all that is right in our country: the land and its people and the lifeblood they create.

************************************

A French-language version, Le Canada, C'est Moi, uses Geneviève Côté's illustration for its cover. 

Graves of Ice: The Lost Franklin Expedition, George Chambers, The Northwest Passage, 1845

by John Wilson
Scholastic Canada
978-1443107945
208 pp.
Ages 9-12
January 2014

The lost Franklin expedition has been in the news again  recently with an armada of Canadian Arctic vessels hunting new locations for the ships and men lost in 1848.  Now, courtesy of the incomparable John Wilson and Scholastic Canada's I Am Canada series, young readers will be able to accompany eighteen-year-old George Chambers on his own journey as a cabin boy on  the HMS Erebus, 1845.

Growing up in Woolwich, England listening to his father's tales of fighting Napoleon under Nelson in the Royal Navy and saving the life of a young John Franklin when sailing under Captain Cooke, George William Chambers is desperate to join Franklin's advertised expedition to complete the Northwest Passage.  Assigned as a cabin boy to Sir John and Commander James Fitzjames, George is essentially a servant and errand boy, but he takes advantage of any opportunities to learn all he can in training for a possible future as a marine.

The arduous journey of the Erebus and Terror ships, with numerous and necessary stops for water and provisions, sees them through the Orkneys, to Greenland, through Baffin Bay and then into the Arctic archipelago in which their truest hardships arise.  Time and time again, ice bars their travels, and the men must endure the cold, darkness, spoiled food and relentless boredom.

"I began to see us as mere toys at the whim of a cruel and uncaring nature." (pg. 88)

Though they wait out their first winter at Beechey Island, there is a second winter trapped in the ice off the north end of King William Island.  The cruelty of nature slams them with further losses of life and the ships' integrity, with conflicts arising more often as the men anxiously consider their few options.  George recounts the events until September, 1849, including the numerous search parties that set out by sled and the deaths of key figures on the expedition, notably Sir John Franklin, explorer Francis Crozier, marine William Braine, and Commander James Fitzjames whose last words to George emphasize the enormous nature of Arctic exploration:

"This land does not forgive.  Either meet it on its own terms, as the natives who live here do, or it will destroy you, as we are destroyed." (pg. 164)

The immensity of this expedition is well conveyed by John Wilson's formal accounts by George and other participants, whether in discussion with others or in their journals and notes.  The gravity of their exploration is easily depicted in the determination of the officers and marines to fulfil their mandate even while starving and confused.

Though John Wilson presents a plausible, albeit fictional, account of the outcome for the Franklin expedition of 1845, he provides the historical background in text and photographs that support his story.  It may only be with the ultimate discovery that completes the evidence picture that we will ever know how much of Graves of Ice is definitive or conjecture.  From John Wilson's pen, I suspect much legitimacy.