Wild Trails to the Sea

 

Written by Penelope Jackson

 Illustrated by Elena Skoreyko Wagner

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77471-273-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2024

 

Wild Trails to the Sea is a reflection of parents who are hopeful for children to enjoy play in the natural worlds of shorelines, oceans, and forests but it reads like a love song to their children, to nature and all its elements, and to curiosity and exploration. 

From Wild Trails to the Sea, words by Penelope Jackson, art by Elena Skoreyko Wagner

The day begins with a mother carrying her young daughter and looking out the window at the dawn and hoping "the peepers always wake you a little too early." And then there are a multitude of days of outdoor play, with parents watching and interacting and showing and learning as their little ones explore wild areas. It's taking off your shoes to feel the sand and rocks beneath your feet. Or tasting spruce tips. Or leaping into freezing waves. It's going from spring when the first mayflower opens to the summer of bathing suits and hot sands, and then to fall when they "climb the tallest hill to watch whirls of colour tumbling toward the ocean" and winter to fling pebbles onto an icy pond. It's a full year and life in the outdoors for this family and these children, and one that will become a tradition for generations.

From Wild Trails to the Sea, words by Penelope Jackson, art by Elena Skoreyko Wagner

Halifax's Penelope Jackson has a story to tell, whether of her own childhood or that of other children. She tells it with an almost perceptible sigh of contentment and respect and awe. The natural world is one of wonder, one of extraordinary treasures to be appreciated. Penelope Jackson's text is written in free verse but it is still rhythmic without rhyming. Her words are cadenced, almost like a song, and it is a song of hopes for children to experience their natural worlds and for nature to be recognized and valued. And it is the promise that that wonder will extend beyond themselves.

I hope that when you are grown

and making pathways of your own

you still follow every salty wind...

and walk the wild trails to the sea.

That sensibility of Penelope Jackson's words is matched with Elena Skoreyko Wagner's collage art. With an eye to both colour and shape, Elena Skoreyko Wagner, originally from Nova Scotia and now of the UK, creates vignettes that are so textured that they seem almost tangible. Whether it's a child's hair being tossed by the wind, or the layers of spruce and pine tree branches in a forest, or smoke curling from a bonfire, Elena Skoreyko Wagner has found a way to bring a new dimensionality to the people and landscapes of Wild Trails to the Sea.

From Wild Trails to the Sea, words by Penelope Jackson, art by Elena Skoreyko Wagner

We may not all have access to a maritime location, but we all have opportunities to get out and play and discover. While Wild Trails to the Sea speaks to one family and the joy and experiential learning of outdoor play, it reminds us that there is much promise if we just open our eyes and take in our surroundings for more than just a backdrop to our structured and scheduled lives.

While You Sleep

Written by Jennifer Maruno

Illustrated by Miki Sato

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-267-7

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

November 2022

 

My father used to say he was busy moving the clouds and polishing the stars when we were sleeping and now I know that he was telling me the truth. Seems a lot goes on when we sleep and, as the child in Jennifer Maruno's latest picture book might realize if she awoke in the night, there is a multitude of night-helpers whose tasks keep the world right.

From While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illus. by Miki Sato

After a day of play, a child and her stuffies are put to bed by her mom and the cat. But, though she sleeps, there are many who are at work.

For while you sleep, there's work to be done.

Someone has to polish the sun,

Comb the grass, straighten the trees,

Place a dot on the black-eyed peas.

There is so much that goes into making the natural world wonderful: butterflies to be dusted, flowers painted, rainbows charged to keep their glow. And Jennifer Maruno tells us about all of them in the sweetest of rhyming couplets. In her dreams, the child envisions the endeavours of her own bunny stuffies sewing and weaving and creating, all to make the world she will love to be tidy and polished.

From While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illus. by Miki Sato

The child may be sleeping with eyes closed but While You Sleep is a very contemplative story of seeing what could be happening in her dreams and in our natural world. It's opening eyes to the possibility of nightly magic to make our world lovely with flowers and plants, animals, and skies. Jennifer Maruno takes us into the dream world of this child to imagine and to build. It's about softness and security, wishes and hopes. It's imaging how things come to be and appreciating how they are. And, by telling her story through rhyme, Jennifer Maruno gives While You Sleep a dynamism of flow, making it a journey of childhood dreams of what might be.

Those wanderings through the natural world of her dreams are all essentially an adventure of time and space because of Miki Sato's textured collage art. Using paper, textiles and embroidery silk, Miki Sato makes the child's worlds, both her real and dream, touchable and deep both in dimension and spirit. There are elderflowers cut from lace and a Milky Way embroidered onto a midnight blue sky, and butterflies, flowers, clouds, stars and more. With deftness of cut and placement of shape, Miki Sato and her night-helpers make this child's world heavenly.

From While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illus. by Miki Sato

I'm saving this book for a dear friend, envisioning her reading it to her future grandchildren. While You Sleep has the love and whimsy that I know she'll want to share with little ones, guiding them through the natural world she so appreciates and cultivates. Infused with sweetness and gratitude for a world of natural beauty, While You Sleep will be a great bedtime read and reminder that our world is one to cherish.