At the Pond

Written and illustrated by Werner Zimmermann

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-4287-8

32 pp.

Ages 2-5

September 2018

On Wednesday, At the Pond became a nominee for a Governor General's Literature Award for Children's Book Illustration and today I want to share why this superb book of art is a worthy contender.

From At the Pond by Werner Zimmermann

At the Pond is a counting book at its simplest. One fish...two fish...and upwards to ten. But At the Pond is more art book than concept book. It is a compendium of beautifully rendered paintings that take the reader to see a pond up close and very personal. Every double spread is an opus of the natural world in colour and shape. The depth of realism that reflects the pond's life, botanical and zoological, is dramatic and intimate. From the goldfish to the water lilies, leopard frogs, insects that include water striders and dragonflies, and the great blue heron from whom the pond life scatters, At the Pond is a literary pond study for those for whom ponds are not readily accessible and even for those fortunate to have them in their backyards.

From At the Pond by Werner Zimmermann

Werner Zimmermann blends green and blue watercolour pigments to give life to the pond's water. There's a dynamic component to essentially still waters–ponds are after all defined as bodies of standing water–that comes from the strokes of his brushes and blending of tones, tints and shades. There are seemingly hundreds of greens in Werner Zimmermann's pond. Moreover, his depiction of the living components in the pond are natural and accurate and filled with life. (Watch the flowering of the water lily for evidence of this.)

From At the Pond by Werner Zimmermann

Teachers may well use At the Pond for counting or for STEM lessons, but for me, it's a study in extraordinary art of the natural world, bringing the outdoors in and sharing a glimpse of life At the Pond.

Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol

by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Werner Zimmermann

North Winds Press, an imprint of Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4836-8

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

October, 2016

Deck the Halls is Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann’s third picture book in their A Canadian Christmas Carol collection in which classic Christmas carols become quintessential Canadian Christmas stories.  The award-winning A Porcupine in a Pine Tree (Scholastic, 2010) was a reworked version of the carol “Twelve Days of Christmas,” and Dashing Through the Snow  (Scholastic, 2014) was based on “Jingle Bells.”  By adding “Deck the Halls” to that repertoire, Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann are firmly establishing themselves as the duo that’s making Christmas music Canadian and relevant to Canadian children today.

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Some of the animals characteristic of Canada who first made their appearance in A Porcupine in a Pine Tree have gathered to decorate the house for the holidays and celebrate.  There’s the famous porcupine leading the endeavour with a wreath, the beavers appropriately getting the tree set up, and loons, muskoxen, caribou, bears, raccoons, sled dogs, otters, moose, puffins, squirrels and hockey-playing grey wolves getting up to all kinds of Christmas shenanigans.  There’s the bounty of food, and the warmth of Christmas sweaters, the burning of yule logs, the wrapping of presents and the singing of carols, along with some high-spirited young ones racing around.  With each page and verse, the scene becomes more chaotic and lively and animated.  It’s a Canadian Christmas through and through, with the carol “Deck the Hall” now more Canadian than any version we’ve ever known!

So deck the halls

with boughs of holly,

Fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la.

Make your True North

Christmas jolly!

Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! 

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Helaine Becker has created another Canadian classic from a favourite Christmas carol and, with the music appended to her story, I can already hear little ones having Christmas singing fun.  The Australians have their “Six White Boomers” and now we have three of our own Canadian takes on classic carols.  Of course, Werner Zimmermann’s entertaining illustrations bring life to the carol, adding detail and joie de vivre to the fresh lyrics.  There is so much to discover in his illustrations that young readers will be rereading the text–more like singing it over and over again–just to pick out the Sasquatch cradling baby raccoons, or puffins with their Christmas crackers, or the hard-hatted beavers constructing the tree, or the curious otter peering at the napping polar bear. Every page is a delight and will charm small eyes who’ll want to pick out all the Christmas fun being had.  

From Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Werner Zimmerman

Deck the Halls: A Canadian Christmas Carol is the first new release of the season that has Christmas singing in my head and lightening my heart with joy.   Thank you, Helaine Becker and Werner Zimmermann.