Under the Umbrella

Written by Catherine Buquet

Illustrated by Marion Arbona

Translated by Erin Wood

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-016-1

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

March 2017

If Under the Umbrella proves anything, it's that there's always a little sunshine associated with the gloominess of rain if you just open your eyes to see beyond the umbrellas.

From Under the Umbrella 

by Catherine Buquet 

illus. by Marion Arbona

A grumbling man dashes through the streets of the town, bracing himself and his umbrella against the sleeting rain.  The man’s suit and umbrella seem as colourless as he is, the only colour the pink of his  raw hands.  He is wet, he is cold and he is late.  It’s not surprising that the older man does not see the young boy mesmerized by the edible treats glowing from within a bright and warm inviting shop.  But when the wind hurls the man’s umbrella away, the rosy-cheeked little boy retrieves it for the man who shows his gratitude with a red rhubarb-raspberry tart. That delightful treat brings the two into a shared experience that takes the chill off the weather for the two unlikely friends.  

From Under the Umbrella

by Catherine Buquet 

illus. by Marion Arbona

Under the Umbrella was first published in French as Sous le parapluie (Les 400 coups, 2016) and garnered much attention for its simple but restorative story told with the pencil and gouache illustrations of Marion Arbona, the artist behind numerous French-language books like Arachnéa and English-language picture books The Good Little Book and Sam’s Pet Temper.  Catherine Buquet’s text suggests a darkness to the man’s trek in the rain, using words like "grumbled", "growled", "muttered", "attacked", "forced", and “With striding feet and stormy heart” (pg. 15), making it evident that the man’s mood is as foul as the weather.  Yet when she introduces the boy who is “entranced” “at a warm and glowing window” and uses words like “gazes”, “the wonders”, “delight”, “shimmered” and “treat”, the atmosphere changes completely, though the rain continues to fall.  What a great lesson in word choice for older readers and writers to witness the impact vocabulary has on atmosphere.  Marion Arbona’s artwork conforms to that climate, using dusky greys and sharp angles for the dreary scenes  while shining bright yellows and reds and pinks within the patisserie and then upon the two as they savour a shared treat.  The interaction between the balding older man in the pin-striped suit and the little boy in cap and short pants is fleeting but colossal in its momentary importance.  I’m glad the boy was taking the time to enjoy the visual display and that the man took the time to acknowledge the boy.  It’s a small thing, but it’s a good thing.

The Vimy Oaks: A Journey to Peace

Written by Linda Granfield

Illustrated by Brian Deines

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-4850-4

36 pp.

Ages 7+

March 2017

On April 9th, 2017, the world will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.  Many new books published to commemorate the anniversary will be based in the First World War and in that northern region of France.  However, though Vimy Ridge is the origin of this story, Linda Granfield takes young readers into the aftermath of the war when a soldier takes a little piece away with him and plants a world of peace and remembrance far, far away.

From back cover of The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines

With photographs and illustrations, Linda Granfield introduces young readers to the beginnings  of the Great War and the role of a young Canadian teacher Leslie H. Miller after his enlistment and deployment with the Canadian Signal Corps.  Along with diary observations of peoples and places and his job with the Signal Corps, Leslie Miller took note of the landscapes encountered and the trees growing within. While the battle at Vimy is noted, it is Leslie Miller’s collection of a few acorns from oak trees blasted during the attack that makes Linda Granfield’s story.  These acorns were shipped backed to his family in Ontario.  Leslie Miller returned to Canada in 1919 and, after ventures to university and teaching again, returned home to the family farm where the oak saplings from the acorns he gathered became the basis for the farm he and his new wife built, The Vimy Oaks.  The history of the farm and the trees, as well as the recognition of the importance of that battle on Vimy, complete the story of Linda Granfield’s The Vimy Oaks.

From The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines

The story of Vimy could be a horrific one but Linda Granfield’s text which she peppers with quotations from Leslie Miller’s diary is broad, encapsulating his experiences without embedding young readers in the horrors of his days. The Vimy Oaks is illustrated by Brian Deines, whose artwork has taken readers to different times and places in The Road to Afghanistan (2013), A Bear in War (2012), Bear on the Homefront (2014) and Adrift at Sea (2016). Here again Brian Deines is able to bring his deft oil work to giving light to dark times and shine to landscapes of war and verdant promise.

As a book of non-fiction, The Vimy Oaks: A Journey to Peace provides an introduction to a monumental battle while intriguing readers with a little known story of Vimy on Canadian land. It’s a unique story and one that commemorates the battle with the promise of growth and majesty.  I was discouraged to hear some of the oaks were removed for the widening of a road but pleased to learn that the trees were part of the Vimy Oaks Repatriation Project that ensured the oaks would once again grow on Vimy Ridge, as well as at memorials across Canada.   It seems the oaks have come full circle, from Vimy to Canada and back to Vimy, perhaps as it should be.

From The Vimy Oaks

by Linda Granfield

illus. by Brian Deines

Short Stories for Little Monsters

Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-896-9

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

March 2017

Whether they’re your little monsters, rugrats, toads, or anklebiters, you can bet that little children will be up to no good and good when March break comes around in a few weeks.  You can either prepare yourself for those days with these humourous stories or share them with your own little monsters to while away the days or nights with some imaginative fun, or save them when your own creativity is waning.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay

In nineteen short-stories told on single pages or double spreads (except for the final story "The Secret Life of Rabbits" that needs four pages to show us what magnificent worlds rabbits make), Marie-Louise Gay takes readers into the fantastical minds and play of children.  From imagining what can be seen when eyes are closed ("When I Close my Eyes") or fantasizing that no one sees them when clad in pillowcases ("The Incredible Invisible Boy" and "The Incredible Invisible Twins") or outrunning monsters that lurk in the wild ("Monster!"), Short Stories for Little Monsters celebrates the creativity of children in their minds and their play, alone and with others.  And beyond child’s play, Marie-Louise Gay takes their visualizations into the worlds of cats, snails, trees and rabbits, for example exposing what our feline friends really see in a dust bunny or a chess game  ("What Do Cats See?" and "What Games Do Cats Play?") and giving us  a snail’s-eye view into "Snail Nightmares" (who knew?) and "The Secret Life of Snails."  Of course, amidst all the fun there is still the apprehension of every day life, when the teacher may call on you ("Who? Me?"), that your mother can see all you do always ("Zombie Mom") or that your friends might see through your façade of wisdom ("Rhisonoros") but this is all life, told in the splendour of colour, line, shape and ingenuity of the very original and inventive creator of Stella and Sam, Marie-Louise Gay.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay

The wealth of stories about imaginative fun and speculation abounds in this compendium of illustrated stories.  The stories are a delight, both humourous and insightful, but it's Marie-Louise Gay's illustrations that will grab readers first, as they always have. (She has been honoured with numerous awards including three Governor General's Awards for illustration in English-language children's books.)  In her artwork, that often resembles the loose frames of graphic novels, she tells of childish diversions but gives them life with her effusive children, and ever-present secondary characters of bunnies, cats, snails, birds and other creatures.  The details are whimsical and ever-present, and children will delight in spotting the stray underwear, the fish that can't add 2 + 2, and the rabbit flying a carrot plane.  And the colours, glorious colours! And the swirls, the patterns, the textures of her lines and watercolours!  There is a gaiety to Marie-Louise Gay's art (it's okay to pun; Marie-Louise Gay does it too) that is like no other, and brings merriment to each story, even if it's about "Lies My Mother Told Me."

It's always a celebration when Marie-Louise Gay publishes a new book but this multi-story illustrated format is certainly unique and worthy of attention.  Moreover, because it's not a book that needs to be read in any order or all the way through in one sitting, I suspect Short Stories for Little Monsters will be appreciated by all readers and listeners, whether they be little monsters or not, who will continuously find nuggets of wisdom and whimsy throughout.

From Short Stories for Little Monsters 

by Marie-Louise Gay

A Month of Mondays

by Joëlle Anthony
Second Story Press
978-1-77260-026-1
340 pp.
Ages 9-13
March 2017

I was reminded of the Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays" when I read the title of Joëlle Anthony's middle grade book and I couldn't even imagine a month full of those oppressive days.  It's just too overwhelming.  Not unlike Suze Tamaki's life.

Suze Tamaki is twelve years old and a Grade 7 student at Maywood Junior High in Victoria, BC.  She lives with her father and her slovenly sister, seventeen-year-old Tracie, in a cramped apartment.  Her Aunt Jenny a.k.a. AJ and Uncle Bill essentially round out her family.  That is, until her mother Caroline who’d abandoned them when Suze was 3 returns to town and wants to reconnect with her daughters.  Everyone has an opinion about that happening, especially Tracie who vehemently refuses to have anything to do with Caroline or allow Suze to do so.

At school, things aren’t any more settled. Suze, who regularly spends time in the office of the principal, Mr. Farbinger, and seems to be quite content to coast through her coursework, is moved into Honours English to work with best friend and super achiever Amanda on a speech presentation.  With the aim of presenting to the school board, the two decide to take up the cause of the custodians who are set to lose their jobs to more cost-efficient contractors.  But even that becomes a fiasco when Suze finds some unorthodox ways to research the custodians’ impact on schools.

Meanwhile, Suze is trying to navigate a potential relationship with a mother who seems to be out of touch with her children, though she has plenty of money to try and make an impact.  The question for Suze is whether any of her hurdles–her schooling, her mother, the rest of her family–are worth the effort necessary to overcome them and lead to some positive resolution.  Unfortunately or not, it’s up to her how she proceeds.  And when life feels like a month of Mondays, it’s hard to get up for any of it.

It’s nice to see a kid who neither has it all together or sits at the bottom of the heap trying to crawl out of the despair of a horrific life. Suze is probably more like most kids, at neither extreme but somewhere in the middle, just trying to make sense of the people and circumstances of her life.  She may not always choose well–her recurrent trips to the principal’s office attest to that–and may get distracted and discouraged but she keeps on plugging away.  Without creating a superhero for the middle grade set, Joëlle Anthony has created a very realistic young teen who’s just trying to find her way.  She may drag a few people along for the ride, and it’s sometimes a bumpy one, but she keeps heading somewhere and in her own time. I guess that’s as real as it gets, isn’t it?  And Joëlle Anthony ensures the reader comes away with a lesson in stick-with-it-ness, demonstrating that things always resolve themselves somehow, sometimes more and sometimes less positively than you might imagine.

Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

Inhabit Media

978-1-77227-126-3

48 pp.

Ages 7+

December 2016

This may be a colouring book and I know the expectation is that pencil crayons will be taken to the black-and-white line drawings, but it almost seems sacrilegious to mar Germaine Arnaktauyok’s stunning illustrations.  Perhaps this reverence is essential for all who behold this book as it will ensure that, even if you do take on the near impossible task of bringing new life to Germaine Arnaktauyok’s outlines, you do so with respect, care and an authentic appreciation for her images of traditional Inuit life.

From Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book 

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

There are twenty-nine different line drawings that may be coloured, from the title page to Neil Christopher’s introduction and the author’s page, though the emphasis is definitely on the 26 drawings set up in double spreads opposite explanatory text about the art.  Some of the art focuses on the natural landscape of the North like the numerous drawings of the tundra plants including willow, lichens, saxifrage, bilberry, and its inhabitants such as the Arctic char, plankton, sea mammals, ptarmigan and gulls.  Other drawings feature characters  from traditional Inuit stories such as the very creepy mahahaa, the taliillajuuq, the qallupilluit, the nanurluk and Sedna, the mother of the sea mammals, as well as scenes from these tales. (See reviews of Way Back Then and Those That Cause Fear by Neil Christopher (Inhabit Media, 2015 and 2016, respectively) for original illustrations by Germaine Arnaktauyok for these and similar stories.) There are also several line drawings of Inuit dress and activities such as drumming.

From Inuit Spirit: A Colouring Book 

by Germaine Arnaktauyok

The text is informative, bringing a knowledge of Inuit life and traditions to help clarify the black-and-white artwork. While the snippets are generally quite brief, the text teaches while helping the reader/colourist discern the elements of the drawing and selecting colours.

Inuit Spirit may not be graced as completely as it could be with Germaine Arnaktauyok’s own colouring version of pointillism–though there is a lengthy discussion of her style being based on squiggles of varying densities–but this colouring book brings an interactive element to her remarkable illustration and to the book’s aim of bringing the art of Inuit life to those beyond the northern areas.  Perhaps by doing rather than just seeing, readers of Inuit Spirit will achieve a new appreciation for Inuit life in general and Germaine Arnaktauyok's art specifically as defining of the northern experience.

Liam Takes a Stand

Written by Troy Wilson

Illustrated by Josh Holinaty

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-161-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2017

In the aftermath of Family Day here in Ontario, I think little Liam would have a thing to say about family and brothers in particular.  Twin older brothers actually. And brothers so overwhelmingly competitive that nothing else matters.  Fortunately Liam is an insightful child who is determined to “win” his brothers’ attention and, though they are too busy outdoing each other, Liam perseveres, making for a happy family in the end.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson 

illus. by Josh Holinaty

Lester and Lister’s competitive spirits take them from sports activities to creative endeavours and finally to entrepreneurship when they each open lemonade stands for the summer.  It’s Lester’s Lemonade Universe vs. Lister’s Lemonade Multiverse, and Liam wants to help but is told he’d just told them back, ostensibly from winning this latest venture.  So Liam, determined to show his brothers how hard he can work, takes on a series of neighbourhood jobs, paid in cash by all but Mrs. Redmond who pays him in apples.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson

illus. by Josh Holinaty

While Lister and Lester continue to grow their businesses to outrageous proportions, trying to outdo and to outsell the other, Liam works hard, saves his money and eventually opens Liam’s Apple Avenue.  He takes a soft touch to his business, though, unlike the hard sell and gimmicks of his older brothers, and Liam’s business becomes a resounding success.  Hard-pressed to be outdone by their little brother, Lester and Lister start their own apple drink stands, too busy with hype to work on making the best product possible.

Fortunately, Lester and Lister recognize what they must do to win even a little bit, and Liam is smart enough to hold onto what he has accomplished while getting what he’d always wanted i.e. play time with his brothers.

Troy Wilson’s take on sibling rivalry is over-the-top and yet so realistic.  Two brothers willing to do whatever it takes to succeed over the other—success itself is never the goal—and ignoring their little brother who ends up being their biggest competitor yet.  In starting to believe their own hype, they disregard all else in the pursuit of domination. And it’s little Liam who initially loses out but finally wins in the brother game of life.

From Liam Takes a Stand 

by Troy Wilson 

illus. by Josh Holinaty

While Josh Holinaty has illustrated for non-fiction books and for other media, Liam Takes a Stand is his first picture book project and his artwork is gloriously over-the-top, perfect for the story.  His big-headed stick figures and colourful displays of convoluted businesses ensure the focus is on the boys and their efforts and I can see children rolling on the floor laughing (yes, they do actually do this) with the boys’ uproarious results.  And I can see them all trying to copy Josh Holinaty’s characters, as children tend to do with favourite cartoons.

Beyond the obvious entertainment value of Liam Takes a Stand, as a teacher I could envision using the fun and hyperbolic attention of the boys to their work for lessons in advertising and economics as well as character education. That makes Liam Takes a Stand a nice little package of fun and life lessons for all to enjoy.

Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses

Written by Caroline Stellings

Peanut Butter Press

978-1-927735-14-5

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

2017

It may be about trucks and cars and mechanics, but Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses is truly a love story. And Caroline Stellings slips in that bit of romance so subtly that, except for the inevitable "Aw" at the end, young readers will still think it's a story about mechanics fixing up vehicles.

From Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses 

by Caroline Stellings

Matt works at Ben’s garage and his only dream is to own an eighteen wheeler.  But, from his meagre room at the back of the garage, it’s evident that Matt does not have the money for such a purchase. But Ben has an idea of fixing up an old car.  He finds a wreck missing most of its parts but it is free. So the two work all spring until it is drivable.  But when his cat friend Harry is desperate for transportation, Matt gives away the newly refurbished yellow car.

Next Ben finds an old clunker of a station wagon that the two repair, only to have Matt give it to Mrs. Potter, the rabbit, who is struggling to take her ten children to school in the pouring rain.

From Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses 

by Caroline Stellings

Their next project is an old pick up truck that takes them all autumn to fix. When a customer at the hardware store  overhears Matt talking about his truck, identical to one in  a calendar posted at the store, you know it’s going to change hands again.  Showing Matt an old photo of his wife on their wedding day beside such a truck, Tom had been searching everywhere for one just like it.  So on Christmas Eve, with a dozen roses, Tom picks up the Neptune Green truck to surprise his wife.  But, in a twist of fate, the surprise don’t end there and Matt’s dream comes true after all.

In a true tale of kindness and kismet, Caroline Stellings portrays a generosity rarely experienced in our world today, and demonstrates that “what goes around, comes around” in a charming plot of dogs, a cat, rabbits and cars and trucks.  It’s a story about an ordinary Joe (or rather Matt) who just keeps plugging along at life, dreaming of an eighteen wheeler and working just to survive.  But his heart is bigger than his dream and, though no one takes advantage of him, Matt gives away far more he gets. Or so it seems.  In that turn of destiny or fate or karma, Matt gets what he wants without having to compromise himself or his work ethic, still able to help many along the way.  With an understated story of kindness repaid, Caroline Stellings’s watercolour and pen and ink illustrations convey that softness and subtlety.  (By the way, if you’re a dog lover, Matt and Ben are based on the author’s own Schipperkes, Matt and Ben, to whom she dedicates the book, along with her mother “who treasured them.”) 

In Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses, Caroline Stellings gives an alternative explanation for the country song of the same name.  I think I prefer this one, as it carries a profound sentiment about good works and karma and important lessons worthy of sharing with young readers.

From Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses 

by Caroline Stellings