The Most Magnificent Team

Written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1295-3

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

May 2025 

 

The most magnificent little girl and her dog from The Most Magnificent Thing, The Most Magnificent Idea, and The Most Magnificent Maker's A to Z return and they're still making and building but with colleagues now.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

It's another day of doing for our young maker. She and her pug may do lots of things from helping others, snacking and dreaming but coming up with ideas for new builds is at which the child excels. Gathering her materials for her latest idea she heads down to her working space on the street and encounters another child already there. There's another little girl, this one with fabulous hair buns, a green headband, glasses and a grey cat out on the sidewalk with a collection of materials and the start of a house. Impressed with what she sees, our first little girl invites her neighbour to work with her on her new idea.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Although our little girl starts off wanting to take the neighbour's ideas into consideration, the two have very different styles of working. While the girl gets right to work, the neighbour child is all about measuring and calculating and considering and making suggestions for making the idea better but never starting to build her part of the project.

 

Even when the girl just does it all her way, the neighbour girl has criticisms.

 

The neighbor insists her idea will be better.

But that's impossible since the girl's idea is already the BEST.

And you can't make the best BETTER – it's already

THE BEST!

 

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

Not only does the neighbour criticize, but she also undoes the work of the girl. At this point, they huff off and decide to work on their own projects. But they both feel their projects to be mediocre, more "HMMM" than "WOW" so decide to amalgamate. They combine their efforts and help the other and while they still run into disagreements, they find that taking a breath, consulting their canine and feline assistants and rejigging their concept can lead to something even more magnificent than they imagined.

 

They might do things differently, and

they'll probably disagree sometimes, but they

know that whatever they make together is

sure to be MAGNIFICENT.

 

Working with someone can be challenging the first time. You have to take into consideration their ideas and their way of doing things and it might require some compromise and even relinquishing some control. But what happens when your styles of making are drastically different? The little girl in Ashley Spires's The Most Magnificent Team finds out soon enough that it's not just a question of adding a person to the mix. It doesn't mean your workload will be lessened immediately or that it'll be more fun. It sometimes means more work upfront to get to know them, how they work, how they can contribute and how to deal together when the partnership is challenged. Fortunately, Ashley Spires shows how a partnership or team can develop from individuals through disagreement and into compromise and finally lead to success and achievement. While young children will certainly benefit from reading a story about how a team comes together, whether they are working in a makerspace, on a sports team or in a group on a class project, I believe their teachers and parents would also be helped to understand that kids don't always hit it off immediately and that with time they can find solutions for themselves that work. It might not always be the solution we would have chosen, but if it's a solution that works for all, we have to let them try.

From The Most Magnificent Team, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires

I love Ashley Spires's stories whether it be her Binky the Space Cat or Burt the Beetle series or her standalone books like Larf and Small Saul. Though her approach is playful, and her illustrations whimsical and bright, she handles tough issues of fitting in and trying your best. In The Most Magnificent Team, Ashley Spires gives us two very different children and helps them find a way to work together, a big goal for everyone. Still, Ashley Spires always keeps it good-natured and lighthearted rather than confrontational or competitive. The kids want to work together; they just haven't figured out how to do it yet. But they do and their collaboration becomes a masterpiece for all, assistants included.

 

Being a magnificent creator can be a solitary activity, whether it be building or writing or something else altogether. But it can be the work of a team and, when a team works together, it can be truly magnificent.

Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act

Written by Nicola Winstanley

Illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

Annick Press

978-1-77321-324-8

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

October 2019 

Mel and Mo are twins and, as much as they love each other, they like different things. One likes the rain, the other sun. One likes getting up early, the other late. And as they grow older, their differences increase until all they do is disagree. When they choose careers, Mel takes over the family umbrella business and Mo performs on a high-wire with multiple poodles as part of the Sunny Sea-Side Circus.

From Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act by Nicola Winstanley, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

But, with time, things change. They always do. Mel's umbrellas and Mo's act both fall out of fashion, regardless of their efforts to adapt. It isn't until the twins come together to reinvent themselves and their product or act that they find a way to be successful, still different but now in balance.

From Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act by Nicola Winstanley, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

Nicola Winstanley, whose picture book How to Give Your Cat a Bath (Tundra, 2018) is currently nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award, always takes a light touch to important stories. Here we have non-binary twins who are the same but very different. Their differences define them. But when their choices become limiting, it is only by finding common ground that the two can continue to let their differences shine. Neither Mel nor Mo is expected to give up on themselves to "fit" into what their sibling or society deems appropriate for twins. Nicola Winstanley gives them the space to grow their creativity for creating a product or an entertainment but also the wisdom to recognize when collaboration would be beneficial.

From Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act by Nicola Winstanley, illus. by Marianne Ferrer

Similarly Marianne Ferrer balances the similarities between the two siblings with their differences. With one creating colourful umbrellas of wild shapes and the other astounding with high-wire acrobatics, Marianne Ferrer places the emphasis on the twins' differences, though still recognizing their similarities in hair styles and by dressing them similarly when young. I have been a big fan of artist Marianne Ferrer since reviewing Racines (Monsieur Ed, 2016). From that, my first French-language book review, I've been enthralled by her pencil and watercolour illustrations that employ a subtlety of colour and balance the whimsy with the sensible.

Mel and Mo's Marvelous Balancing Act may be about twins who want to be individuals whose differences are accepted as relevant, but it's also about knowing when to bring those differences into proximity for collaborative creativity. It's a fine balance that Mel and Mo are able to find and celebrate, as we all should.

Mouse Vacation

by Philip Roy

Illustrated by Andrea Torrey Balsara

Ronsdale Press

978-1-55380-479-6

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

October 2016

Compromise is tough enough between humans.  Imagine trying to compromise with an adorable mouse who has great imagination and wanderlust but no sense of distance or costs.  Happy the Pocket Mouse has decided the solution to a case of the boredom blues is for him and his human, John, to go some where.

For John, though, going somewhere usually means someplace close to home, like the store or the park.  But Happy has other ideas, and he has lots of them.  So, John recommends that they each make a list of places they’d like to go.  John is thinking the woods and the river, but Happy’s thinking the Taj Mahal and New Zealand.

Finally John introduces the idea of compromise, a meeting in the middle, which Happy jumps on, proposing meeting in Egypt, or Paris or even New York City, all of which John nixes based on cost.  John’s suggestion about an overnight bus ride to the nearest city to see the Tall Ships finally grabs Happy’s attention, especially John’s description of them as “ghosts from the past” (pg. 23).  Still, finally settling down for the night, the excited little mouse checks with John about one potential stop on the way home!

From Mouse Vacation 

by Philip Roy, illus. by Andrea Torrey Balsara

I’ve reviewed every Happy the Pocket Mouse story that Philip Roy and Andrea Torrey Balsara have created: Mouse Tales (Ronsdale, 2014); Jellybean Mouse (Ronsdale, 2014); and Mouse Pet (Ronsdale, 2015).  The foundation of each picture book is the endearing relationship between John and Happy.  John is like the laid-back best friend/dad who radiates subtle wisdom and empathy while Happy is this adorable, adorable innocent whose heart is filled with love and mind brims with imagination.  (I love the sweetness of his response to John’s suggestions: “That’s okay, John, we’ll just go somewhere else”; pg. 5) By having John and Happy working out what it means to take a vacation and finding a way to compromise, Philip Roy has again produced a charming life lesson in a story book.  And Andrea Torrey Balsara flawlessly brings the story to visual completion, ensuring John looks like the man who is wise and caring and Happy is effusive with sweetness and virtue.  But, this time, Philip Roy’s story allows Andrea Torrey Balsara to create wild backgrounds for Happy: on a cow at the Taj Mahal, roasting a marshmallow over a candle while camping, riding a camel in Egypt, or sporting an “I ❤︎ NY” T-shirt.  Still, the magic is in the collaboration, between the text and illustration and between John and Happy.  That's what makes the story, and Philip Roy and Andrea Torrey Balsara have done it again, blending the two into a story of adventure for the mind, the heart and the soul.

From Mouse Vacation 

by Philip Roy, illus. by Andrea Torrey Balsara