Spider in the Well

Written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

Katherine Tegen Books (An Imprint of HarperCollins)

978-0-063289475

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2024

 

The people of Bad Göodsburg have a problem: their wishing well is broken. The newsboy who delivers the papers–and sweeps the chimneys, delivers the milk, and shines the shoes–is tasked with one more job: find out what is wrong with the well. And when he hears about the charitable wishes of the baker, the doctor, and the shopkeeper, he is determined to ensure those wishes are granted.

From Spider in the Well, written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

Making his way to the well, the boy learns that a spider in the well has been responsible for the well not working. But, though the spider was just being a spider, building a web that happens to catch the coins, it's what he reveals to the newsboy that truly gets the boy irate and screaming, "Unbelievable!" and demanding justice.

From Spider in the Well, written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

But what justice needs to be achieved? And how will the town's newsboy and lackey ensure that righteousness prevails?

Without giving away the story of Spider in the Well, let me assure readers that this is more than a cautionary tale about being careful what you wish for. And it's not because wishes might be ill-advised. It's because people and their wishes are not always benevolent. Sometimes wishes are selfish and rooted in vanity, greed, and worse, and no one wants to be seen as less than virtuous. The fine citizens of Bad Göodsburg hide behind false virtues and are taken down by a spider and a boy who may be or may not be similarly ethically challenged.

From Spider in the Well, written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

Jess Hannigan's tale of wishes gone wrong has the tone of a fable or even a fairy tale. It's told with a host of archetypes, from the self-righteous townspeople to the put-upon boy who overcomes unjust treatment to be rewarded in the end. There's even the anthropomorphic spider who helps the boy triumph. And for each one of these characters, Jess Hannigan gets the voices right, and gives the story a tone of reparation rather than of grifting. (You'll see what I mean when you read the ending.)

From Spider in the Well, written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

Hamilton's Jess Hannigan is an illustrator–this is her first picture book as author-illustrator–and her digital artwork, strong in shape and colour, makes the story even more powerful. By creating characters and scenes that are both simplified and complex in content and perspective, Jess Hannigan draws us into the story and helps us to see the circumstances as the boy does. She has a striking style of soft but bold lines that create tension while keeping the reader sympathetic to the boy, something that is more easily achieved by drawing the townspeople as oddly shaped and weirdly coloured.

 

So, if there's a moral to the story of Jess Hannigan's Spider in the Well, it's to be careful what you wish for because you never know who may be listening. On the plus side, sometimes one person's wishes result in just rewards for another. Just ask the newsboy of Bad Göodsburg, now happily retired.

• • • • • • •

Consider checking out one of several book launches Jess Hannigan will have in Ontario for Spider in the Well.

 

Thursday, March 21, 2024

6:30 PM

Type Books Junction

2887 Dundas St. W., Toronto

 

Sunday, April 7, 2024

1 PM

Epic Books

226 Locke Street S., Hamilton

Song for the Snow

Written by Jon-Erik Lappano

Illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-268-6

44 pp.

Ages 3-6

September 2021

 

Here in our northern climate of Canada, we can almost always be assured of snow sometime in the winter season. One year may vary from the next in terms of snow load and snow type–fluffy or wet–but we know that in most places in Canada, snow will come. But what if it didn't?

From Song for the Snow by Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

Freya loves the snow. She dreams of it and anticipates its return come winter. But it has been two years since the weather has been cold enough for the snow to come to her town and her memories of it are beginning to fade. 

Maybe the snow is lost, she thought.

At the market, where everyone is dressed in light jackets and sweaters and definitely no snow boots, Freya hears a tune that draws her to a trinket table with a woman holding a beautiful snow globe. She tells Freya that the song is very old and special, once sung every winter to call the snow home. Then she gifts Freya with the snow globe.

From Song for the Snow by Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

At home, her mother recalls the tune and sings her the words her grandmother once sang.

"Come home snow," she sang.

"Fall from high...

cover the trees and fill the sky..."

From Song for the Snow by Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler

For days, Freya sings for the snow to come but there is still no snow. She fears it may be too far away or perhaps she isn't singing it right. Then she wonders if more voices are needed and she enlists the help of her classmates to spread the song.

As they sang, distant memories of cozy, snow-filled nights returned to their parents.

And those parents hum the tune as they go about their days, spreading the song into homes and hearts. What happens next is the stuff of legends.

Young readers may anticipate the ending for Song for the Snow but it is no less gratifying, especially for young Freya whose calling it was to bring the snow home. Her connection with snow drew her to the globe and sharing the song, all of which resulted–or did it?–in the return of the snow. Whether it is to be believed by readers or not, it happened, and Jon-Erik Lappano's telling of this fable makes it real. It tells children that it's possible to dream and to wish for things hard enough to make them come true. (I wouldn't be surprised if there are little ones out there who will want to know the tune so they can sing it when they too want the snow to return.) Jon-Erik Lappano tells the story like a recount, a tale passed down, like the song, through generations to remind young readers that they have the capacity to change things. In our tenuous environmental circumstances, Song for the Snow is a lovely push for children to do what they can to make the world the one they want. And it's told so tenderly, never harsh or in your face. Like a blanket of snow, it coats its message of caring action with patience and perseverance and connection.

The artwork by Byron Eggenschwiler gives Song for the Snow a Scandinavian feel from Freya's knitted sweater to the cable-knit feathers of herself as a dream bird. In fact, the art is very reminiscent of Jan Brett's winter tales, perfect for important messages and a cold landscape. Byron Eggenschwiler's digital illustrations are subdued and yet robust in their somberness, infused with a darkness of wishes unfulfilled with only flakes of lightness for the music and snow.

Whether you already have snow on the ground or are only wishing for it, Song for the Snow will give hope that wishing with action can make dreams come true. Freya proved it.

Alice & Gert: An Ant and Grasshopper Story

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Dena Seiferling

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-358-3

24 pp.

Ages 3-7

August 2020 

There’s a reason that fables and parables are so timeless as literary vehicles: their messages are enduring. It doesn’t matter whether the fable is from Aesop’s time, as is the basis for Alice & Gert, or of a contemporary setting. The messages are strikingly worthwhile and sadly still needing to be reinforced.

 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

Alice is an ant and Gert, a grasshopper. It’s summer, with the lily of the valley out, and Alice is “ferrying bits of grain and seeds to her nest.” Gert, on the other hand, just thinks they should be enjoying the fine weather because “Winter is YEARS away.” In fact, Gert serenades Alice as she toils, recommending  through song that the ant should rest, laugh, play and sip tea. Even as Alice tells Gert that she’ll relax in January and continues to work, she finds herself humming Gert’s tune. Though she persists in her endeavours, she is charmed by Gert’s playing at pirate and a decorative pathway of flowers and leaves Gert makes for her. 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

But when fall arrives and Alice panics for Gert about the ever-nearing winter, Gert dances a sarabande for her. Of course, winter does come and Gert finally becomes unnerved realizing that there are no stores of seeds in her own nest. Although Alice does take a moment to remind Gert that she should have planned better, her compassion helps her acknowledge how Gert’s work of singing and dancing lightened her own efforts and the ant is pleased to repay the grasshopper’s kindness by sharing her own stores of food.

 

From Alice & Gert by Helaine Becker, illus. by Dena Seiferling

Messages in books may sometimes become preachy if told in a heavy-handed way. Those is Alice & Gert are not. Written by award-winning author Helaine Becker, Alice & Gert is in no way moralizing or sanctimonious. Helaine Becker could have written Alice to be self-righteous, knowing that her hard work would allow her to survive the winter and Gert as flighty and irresponsible but she does neither. While Helaine Becker’s retelling of "The Ant and the Grasshopper" recognizes that hard work is beneficial to all and that responsibility is virtuous, she still acknowledges the worth of creativity.

Calgary’s Dena Seiferling, whose illustrations helped earn her first picture book nominations for the Marilyn Baillie and Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver awards, carries the two characters through the seasons with only slight changes in her palette, from the greens of summer to the browns and golds of fall to the greys, browns and white of winter. Her illustrations are as classic as the fable, having used her pencil to create profound scenes that are steeped in atmosphere and characters evocative with feeling. From the dramatic Gert who never looks silly as she enjoys her creative pursuits to the tireless Alice who takes the time, amidst her work, to feel, Dena Seiferling makes us appreciate the depth of the story through her characters and the setting.

Hard work may drive survival but creativity makes it endurable. Besides, with a dose of kindness, hard work and creativity can be balanced, as Alice and Gert learn.

A Cage Went in Search of a Bird

Written by Cary Fagan

Illustrated by Banafsheh Erfanian

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-861-7

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

May 2017

Based on Franz Kafka’s aphorism identical to the title, Cary Fagan tells the story of a long-forgotten bird cage in an attic, hopeful of a bird to reside in it once again.  So determined is the cage for a bird that it throws itself out the window of the attic and rolls out into the big world outside in search of a new bird.

Though the cage is visited by many a bird–crow, blue jay, hummingbird, sun conure, hoopoe, owl–they all profess valid reasons for why they will not venture inside.  After all, they are wild birds, used to the freedom to fly where they will for food or perch, one with young in a tree nest, one far too big to spread its wings within.  It’s not until the cage is visited by a canary that its quest comes to an end.

Illustration by Banafsheh Erfanian 

for A Cage Went in Search of a Bird

A Cage Went in Search of a Bird has the feel of one of Aesop’s fables in that birds and objects such as the birdcage, a suitcase and a guitar speak.  Whether Cary Fagan intended to teach a lesson as fables do only he can tell us but there are important messages within regardless.  Though A Cage Went in Search of a Bird has at its basis the premise that there is someone for everyone, it also speaks to freedom and wild animals versus pets and perspective.  It is evident that no matter how lovely Banafsheh Erfanian’s acrylic and pastel illustrations are of the ornate bird cage, it’s not enough to get any bird to jump inside.  And her artwork is outstanding, as daring in her colours and shapes as the cage is in its search.  Reds, oranges and turquoises give A Cage Went in Search of a Bird an exotic feel, though the collection of bird species suggests a global tale by including temperate birds of North America, a South American parrot and the Afro-Eurasian hoopoe.  The lavishness of Banafsheh Erfanian’s illustrations embodies the importance of Cary Fagan's words.  Though it might not follow the paradoxical meaning of Kafka's aphorism, A Cage Went in Search of a Bird's message that even that which is most beautiful can be lonely and that quests to alleviate that loneliness can be daunting but worthwhile is just as relevant.

Illustration by Banafsheh Erfanian 

for A Cage Went in Search of a Bird

The Owl and the Lemming

by Roselynn Akulukjuk

Illustrated by Amanda Sandland

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-120-1

32 pp.

Ages 5-7

November 2016

Like Aesop’s Fables, The Owl and the Lemming is a tale with a moral but it is more than just a morality story. Through the words of Nunavut-born filmmaker Roselynn Akulukjuk and illustrator Amanda Sandland, this fable is an Inuit legend with a lesson based on a local predator-prey relationship amidst that Arctic ambience of mossy and rocky tundra.  The Owl and the Lemming is as elegant in its story-telling and art as it is wise in its teaching.

A young lemming makes her way out of the den in the spring to partake in some much-needed feeding on tasty moss.  So engrossed in her eating, she fails to notice a snowy owl land directly in front of the entrance to the lemming’s den.   The young lemming tries to trick the snowy owl with some juvenile ploys based on distraction but, though young, the owl is wise to her intentions. Finally the lemming invites the owl to play a jumping game with the lemming’s fate as a meal the prize.  The owl is only too happy to show his prowess at jumping, sadly for him allowing the lemming to scurry back into her den.  Though his father cautions him, “Next time, don’t play with your food” (pg. 25), the little owl knows it was his pride that cost him his meal.

That old adage of pride going before a fall is ever so true in this Inuit tale, told with humour by Roselynn Akulukjuk who directed a puppet-based film of the story for Taqqut Productions, just winning Best Animation at the 41st annual American Indian Film Institute Festival.  It’s an auspicious recognition of the talent of Roselynn Akulukjuk to tell such a legend with both clarity and richness, staying true to her Nunavut roots while extending herself into her new pathways for story-telling.  Similarly, Amanda Sandland uses her artwork to combine the whimsical with the realistic, creating composite images of drawings with photographic backgrounds.  With only a few touches of comic design, like the den’s doorway and fencing, added to the true tundra landscape, Amanda Sandland puts all her efforts in creating a lemming and an owl worthy of the legend’s title.

From The Owl and the Lemming 

by Roselynn Akulukjuk, 

illus. by Amanda Sandland

Readers should look for the release of Taqqut Productions’s film of this story, but indulge in this literary version from Inhabit Media for teaching and learning an important moral about pride and survival from a very northern perspective.