I Got You a Present!

Written by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan

Illustrated by Cale Atkinson

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0009-7

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2020

I Got You a Present! is the perfect book to review for April Fool's Day as it is a bit of a joke. It's reminiscent of those irreverent birthday cards in which the giver plans to give the best of gifts but it ends up only being the card. Fortunately, for the recipient of Duck's intentions, the present is more personal than any gag card or gift could be. 

Throughout the book, Duck explains all the great gifts he planned for the birthday celebrant. He has the best ideas. First he is determined to knit some socks. Unfortunately, that doesn't work out.

Have you ever tried knitting birthday socks? It's really hard.

From I Got You a Present! by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan, illus. by Cale Atkinson

Then he chooses a ten-scoop ice-cream cone with the delicious flavours of Hooty Fruity, Huckleberry Honeycomb and Blueberry Brain Freeze. Of course, something goes awry there too.

From I Got You a Present! by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan, illus. by Cale Atkinson

There's a birthday music jam, the disappearing magic kit, an apple-juice-fueled jet pack, and more. And each time, there's an "except" or a "but" that tells the reader that that birthday gift also didn't happen.

From I Got You a Present! by Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan, illus. by Cale Atkinson

Poor Duck! He was so intent on getting something special for his birthday friend. Fortunately, he realizes that all these anecdotes make for a fabulous story and a very personalized book that would make it the ultimate birthday present.

I Got You a Present! may be partners and collaborative duo Mike Erskine-Kellie and Susan McLennan's debut picture book but they are well-versed in the field of children's entertainment, having written for a variety of television shows. They make sure that each flop of Duck's gift attempts is snappy, funny and relatable. From a craft project that Duck can't quite complete, to misplacing something, or dropping a ice-cream, all situations are those to which children can relate and certainly appreciate.  Even Duck's earnestness at getting a great birthday gift for his friend is palpable. 

Cale Atkinson, whose digital art was apparently "rendered in cake icing, gorilla vanilla ice cream and Photoshop," communicates Duck's fervent attempts in his bold and enthusiastic illustrations (except where Duck is saddened to think he may have failed to get a present), blending them with the brightest of colours, the most voluminous of shape and the most spirited of line. 

If you have a child's birthday coming up, do pick up I Got You a Present! It's both birthday card message and gift with a surprise but thoughtful resolution.

...it's a story about you and me. So anytime you want, you can read it again and remember what great friends we are!

🎂🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎂

An Inheritance of Ashes

by Leah Bobet
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers
978-0544281110
388 pp.
Ages 12+
October 2015
Reviewed from advance reading copy

An Inheritance of Ashes is a dark tale.  A dark, dark tale. And, though it has supernatural elements, An Inheritance of Ashes is a familiar tale of fears and love and heroes and isolation and pride, and family.  And it has a force within.  A force that good may come from evil.

The emptiness grew, and split, and ate the whole world in its wake.  It was never going to be all right again. (pg. 126)

Hallie, 16, and her sister, Marthe, 26, both inherited Roadstead Farm from their abusive father, and now run it–raising barley, goats, poultry, etc.–with Marthe’s husband, Thom Clarlund, or they did until Thom went to war against the Wicked God and his general and prophet Asphodel Jones and army of irregulars, and their creatures, nay monsters, everyone calls Twisted Things.  Though the two young women are cautiously hopeful of Thom’s return, now that a man named John Balsam who “by magic, skill or cunning killed the Wicked God” (pg. 23), Hallie and Marthe take on a vet named Heron for whom “No one’s waiting for me to turn life normal again” (pg. 13) to help with the harvest and running the farm.  

But things are far from normal at the farm. Twisted Things begin to appear, one here, another there, killing the air, burning whatever they touch, contaminating the remnants of their lives.  And Hallie worries that the Great Army, desperately searching for John Balsam, will quarantine the farm, if not take it away from them.  Though Hallie is reluctant to ask for help, Heron and their neighbours, the Blakeley’s, come to their assistance.  Moreover, even though Hallie recognizes that, because of the abuse of their father, “We were ruined for loving people.  We were ruined for being loved” (pg. 244), Tyler Blakely who has his own war ghosts begins to court her and, with his sister Nat and Heron, help her recognize that she doesn’t have to take on the evil alone, or hide or run from that which seems too much. “We made each other less alone.” (pg. 272)

There are things not of our world in An Inheritance of Ashes, and there are things that were never of their world either, including a Wicked God that is more storm than substance and bird- and lizard-like creatures that burn and kill that which they touch, and a violent purple and green world that is evident only through a hole in the air.  But fighting evil and finding strength with others and holding onto that which is everything–a home, family, friends–are our world, and Leah Bobet easily supplants readers from their comforts into the darkness of Hallie’s world.  Rife with atmosphere and Hallie’s longing for rightness, An Inheritance of Ashes demonstrates that what we get from family is not always what is expected.  If might be an inheritance of a family farm, or of fear, or isolation, but it can be the fortitude to continue on, when all expect failure to reverberate.  And, with powerfully evocative text, Leah Bobet allows Hallie and others in An Inheritance of Ashes to sift through the cinders and residue after a horror and find something worth keeping.