The Girl with the Cat

Written by Beverley Brenna

Illustrated by Brooke Kerrigan

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-531-8

32 pp.

Ages 5-10

April 2020

Based on a true story, The Girl with the Cat recounts a fortuitous visit to an art gallery that leads to an act of activism and the permanent installation of a bronze sculpture in Saskatoon.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

When a young girl and her older brother go exploring one Saturday shortly after the family's move from Toronto to Saskatoon, they discover an art gallery of epic proportions. Within the walls, the girl discovers a plethora of art which cannot be touched; that is, until she finds a bronze sculpture of a girl in a rocking chair with a cat on her lap. Without a sign about touching, lonely Caroline touches the chair and sees it rock. She pats the cat, and takes in the details of the artwork, from the girl's bare feet and shorts to the ripples of the cat's fur. Everything reminds Caroline of the home and cat she left behind and of playing with her friends. She makes a connection and returns to talk to the girl and her cat, identified as Nina and Sammy, time and time again.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

I sit beside them and the Gallery breathes softly around us. In the stillness I start to really see the paintings. This room is full of summer. There are trees for treehouses and beaches for swimming. I bet Nina likes this place. Maybe that's one of her secrets. I tell her my secrets in return.

But when Caroline learns that the sculpture is being returned to Ottawa where the artist lives, Caroline is devastated.

It feels as if there's a hole in the roof and all the light is leaking out.

Nine-year-old Caroline gathers up the little bit of money she and her brother have and delivers it with a letter to the director. Though he suggests there's nothing he can do, the next morning her letter graces the front page of the newspaper, and a month later Caroline is pleased to hear that the "Girl With Cat" would not be moved.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

According to the notes at the conclusion of The Girl with the Cat, Caroline Markham was the little girl who wrote the letter that saved this sculpture at the Mendel Art Gallery in 1966. That sculpture, by the artist Arthur Price of his own daughter and her cat, remains in Saskatoon though it has been relocated with the gallery's collection to the city's new art museum. But this child's small act of activism, championing a piece of art with which she made a connection and helped her become accustomed to her new home, reminds us that small deeds can enact important changes. Beverley Brenna, who has penned everything from picture books and early readers (I reviewed Sapphire the Great and the Meaning of Life last year) to middle grade, YA and short stories, is very astute about getting into the heads of children and giving voice to that which matters to them. This story may be about taking action but at its most heartfelt it's about the anguish a child feels about her family's move and her need for reassurance and a friend. She finds both in a bronze sculpture that also leads her to real friends. Not surprising she returns the favour.

From The Girl with the Cat by Beverley Brenna, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan

With Brooke Kerrigan's illustrations created with the softest of media like pencil crayon and watercolours, The Girl with the Cat is both muted and dramatic. Brooke Kerrigan makes the gallery itself impressively monolithic and the art it houses striking, which is how a child would perceive them to be. Her distinctive art styling has both a grace and a magic that consistently draw me in to the story. (Read my reviews of The Christmas Wind, The Little Boy Who Lived Down the Drain, and Fishermen Through & Through for a sampling of some of my favourites by Brooke Kerrigan.)

I'm glad Arthur Price created his sculpture and that it was there to comfort Caroline in 1966 and that she was able to help safeguard its presence in Saskatoon, but I am most thankful that Beverley Brenna and Brooke Kerrigan were able to share this story about how a small act can lead to transformation.

Anna at the Art Museum

Written by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert

Illustrated by Lil Crump
Annick Press

978-1-77321-043-8

36 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2018

Little Anna's mother has taken the girl to an art museum where everything seems "old and boring." But when Anna goes exploring and tries to have a little fun, roaring at the Babylonian ceramic panel of a lion, the guard chastizes her to be quiet. When she plays peekaboo with a baby, she almost topples a decorative urn. Even a colourful modern sculpture that looks like an interactive toy is not to be touched. Again her mother has to have the talk with her about "No shouting. No running. No climbing. No touching."

From Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins & Gail Herbert, illus. by Lil Crump

While art is emulated unknowingly by the patrons (this will be the fun part for young readers to find), Anna thinks about "If only the museum could be turned inside out. Or the world outside in." But after the attendant allows her to peek in a workroom where conservators work at restoring art, including one in which she sees a little girl just like her (Mary Cassatt's Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878), Anna's perspective on art changes.

From Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert, illus. by Lil Crump

Anna at the Art Museum is so charming and so real.  Any teacher or parent who has ever taken a young child to a museum or art gallery for the first time knows that, in order to grab a child's attention, a connection must be made. Without a connection, art is just stuff on the wall and on pedestals. It's the same for text and people and ... everything.  Problem is that, while Anna is trying to find her connection with the art, all the adults around her are telling her she's making the wrong connections because she's trying to do it through touch and play. Finally, when she is able to make a visual connection, the art in the museum and her world come together and become real.

From Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert, illus. by Lil Crump

Authors Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert have taken a big story of a little girl in an overwhelming art museum and brought it to the perspective of a child. We see and hear what Anna does, how she is experiencing the museum.  For that reason, Anna at the Art Museum will be a worthwhile addition to home, classroom and school libraries for reading prior to and after visits to places like museums and art galleries where, on the surface, children might be challenged to make connections easily.  But connections can be made and, if the plethora of artwork depicted by Nova Scotia artist Lil Crump is any indication, there's always something with which a person can connect. 

From Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert, illus. by Lil Crump

Still Lil Crump's illustrations go beyond the famous artwork she reproduces in cameos throughout the book. (The appendix About the Art describes each piece and its creator, as well as details about the medium and gallery where it is displayed.) Lil Crump gives Anna life and lots of it. She is bored and playful and inquisitive and surprised. She is a child and, thank heavens, she still has the spark to see beyond the surface.

In Anna at the Art Museum, Hazel Hutchins, Gail Herbert and Lil Crump have shown us that there is much life in art and art in life and that seeing it might just take a fortuitous connection.

I Art Books Exhibit and Sale of Children's Book Illustrations: Uxbridge, ON

Come celebrate Authors for Indies Day

and kick off an art exhibit and sale extraordinaire

with youngCanLit illustrators

Rebecca Bender

Suzanne Del Rizzo

Jan Dolby

Eugenie Fernandes

on

April 30, 2016

10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Blue Heron Books

62 Brock St. W.

Uxbridge, ON

Take advantage of this unique show
to meet 4 extraordinary youngCanLit illustrators
and pick up a lovely piece of art (and perhaps a book or two)


Even if you can't make the April 30th show, 

the art exhibit is on 
from April 24, 2016 to May 15, 2016

See you there!

Once Upon a Line: Book Event and Art Exhibit and Sale (Toronto)

Join 

award-winning author, illustrator and artist 

Wallace Edwards 

for a special event to celebrate his newest picture book

Once Upon a Line

by Wallace Edwards

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-78-1

32 pp.

Ages 6-9

Released September, 2015

Reviewed here

on Saturday, December 5, 2015

from 2-4 p.m.

at

Ingram Gallery

24 Hazelton Avenue

Toronto, ON

In addition to a book signing 

(books will be available for purchase) 

and reception, with refreshments,

there will be an exhibition and sale 

of the original picture book art

(which will run until December 10)

Having met the lovely and talented Wallace Edwards and appreciated his artwork for many years, I am most excited about the art exhibit! Imagine an opportunity to purchase original art work from a work of youngCanLit that is sure to be on award lists in the upcoming year.

RSVP at bit.ly/OnceUponALine

Get more news from publisher Pajama Press about this event and book and more at http://pajamapress.ca

Wallace Edwards: Book Launch, and Art Exhibition and Sale (Toronto)

Join author and artist

Wallace Edwards 

for the book launch and signings 

of his newest picture book

Unnatural Selections

Written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards

Orca Book Publishers

9781459805552 

32 pp.

Ages 4+

October 2014

on

December 6, 2014

from 2 - 4 p.m.

at

Ingram Gallery

49 Avenue Road

Toronto, ON

Unnatural Selections is described on Orca's website as follows:

A fantastical collection of unnatural selections!
Beloved illustrator Wallace Edwards invites us into the world of Professor I.B. Doodling, a traveling artist who takes suggestions from schoolchildren in order to create fantastical hybrid animals. The result of these visits is Unnatural Selections, a collection of magnificent beasts, from the stately Whalephant to the talented Lizabouboon. Sure to inspire the imagination, Wallace Edwards’s intricate illustrations invite you to pore over them again and again. A supplementary index lists additional creatures to spot throughout the book’s pages, encouraging readers to go back for a second, and a third, look.

Retrieved from http://www.orcabook.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=2014 on November 8, 2014.

Plus

there will be an 

 Art Exhibition 

and Sale of Original Artwork

by Wallace Edwards

from

December 6 -16, 2014

Images retrieved from 

http://www.ingramgallery.com/artists/wallace_edwards/index.html on November 8, 2014.