Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color

Written by Andrée Poulin

Illustrated by Lucile Danis Drouot

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-104-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

February 2020 

I'm tickled pink by any book that supports diversity and acceptance of differences as the norm so I'm especially thrilled about a picture book that supports this message in as subtle and eloquent a way, as well as playful, as Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color.

When Zac the zebra and Poncho the panda are playing and Filippo the flamingo asks if he can join them, he is told that he is too pink, a colour which gives Poncho a headache. But when Filippa asks his parents, they tell him pink is the colour of kindness and happiness. So Filippo tries again.

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

Zac and Poncho are now rude to Filippo, telling him they don't want him to play and that "Pink doesn't mix with black and white." His grandmother shows him with her paints how wrong that idea is. So Filippo adds some black and white paint to his body and asks politely again. But, of course, Zac and Poncho continue to make excuses, about pink being the colour for babies who cry and princesses who are fussy.

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

Though Filippo gets support from his family, it's input from his shy peer, Ludo the lemur, that makes things right for Filippo.  Ludo recounts to Filippo all the wonderful things that come in pink: shrimp, salmon, bubble gum, cherry blossoms, begonias, peonies, petunias, and roses. And Ludo, who is black and white, says he would be pleased to play with Filippo. That play includes adding a little pink paint to the sleeping zebra and panda, who are not pleased, but also to other animals who are "tickled pink to go pink."

From Tickled Pink: How Friendship Washes the World with Color by Andrée Poulin, illus. by Lucile Danis Drouot

The story in Tickled Pink is far from black and white. It goes beyond a story of excluding those who are different. It demonstrates how much we all want to be included.  Filippo could have thrown up his wings and said, "Fine, I don't want to play with you, Zak and Poncho" but he didn't. He questioned his parents and his grandmother and his sister, all to help him grasp what being pink meant. But bullying and intolerance are incomprehensible, especially when "reasons" are given to explain the intolerance. I'm glad Andrée Poulin gave Filippo a quiet and insightful friend in Ludo who proves that it's not the black-and-white animals that lack understanding, but just one zebra and one panda. (Okay, there may be others out there, there always are, but it's clear that it's not all black-and-white animals.) For intolerance to be eliminated, everyone needed to see beyond the colours.

Artist Lucile Danis Drouot keeps her palette, until the very end, black, white, gray and pinks to emphasize the separation that Zak and Poncho highlight but she adds a playfulness in her animals' activities–vine-climbing, soccer, volleyball, and badminton–that embeds the message in gentleness and whimsy. A final spread resplendent in pinks brightens the world in happiness and friendship.

Like any racism or discrimination, the zebra and the panda could have arbitrarily chosen an attribute other than colour, such as non-feathered vs. feathered, or four-legged vs. two-legged.  But, like so many who discriminate, they chose colour. Fortunately, there are so many who don't see the colour, only the substance, and infuse our world with goodness and acceptance.

My Best Friend and Other Illusions

Written by Suri Rosen

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-4682-1

240 pp.

Ages 9-12

February 2020

When life becomes difficult, returning to the positive memories of childhood can soothe, invigorate and even stamp out worries. For young children, an imaginary friend can be part of that repertoire of comfort. It allows them to be imaginative, learn how to interact with others, allay fears and explore. But what happens when your imaginary friend reappears in physical form for all can see when you're a young teen?

Thirteen-year-old Charlie Green has a dream and a goal: she wants to attend a gymnastics camp with Coach Mikhailov in Montreal so that she might ultimately join his travelling circus, Circo Circo. But her efforts to raise the money needed have become more difficult. She had been partnering with best friend Holly to perform at parties, doing acrobatics, juggling and walking on stilts but, with Holly's move to Chicago, Charlie is on her own and making a mess of things. Her mother works tirelessly as a music teacher but just doesn't have the extra money for the camp. Her younger brother, Miles, is willing to help through his online poker, but it may get him put in foster care. 

Then Miles discovers someone advertising as Cirkus Celebrations and gets in touch, hoping to find a new partner for Charlie. A boy, who introduces himself as Rudy Jellen, attends a party and works so well shadowing her that it's as if he were a clone of Charlie herself. When it becomes evident that Rudy is homeless and knows everything about her dolls and what she liked to eat when she was little and stories she was told, Charlie realizes Rudy is her imaginary friend from ten years earlier.

Rudy was an archive of joy. (pg. 144)

But as Charlie continues to try to find a way to earn the money she needs, she must also look after Rudy and keep her mother from freaking out, while putting together the pieces of her life that she had forgotten. With Rudy, all things become possible.

Though My Best Friend and Other Illusions is solidly a middle-grade novel in terms of characters, plot and vocabulary, Suri Rosen has extended the story into a more mature one in which children have real worries with money, family, grief, social nastiness and self-confidence. As funny as the premise is with an imaginary friend coming to life, Charlie and Miles' story is a tough one as they attempt to reconcile what their lives are and what could have been.

Everything was so shattered. We'd all lost what we'd wanted and were also so lost ourselves that we couldn't find a way to each other. There ought to be a playbook about the right way to love people. Because sometimes hurting and helping them were all tangled up together. (pg. 136)

Suri Rosen may tie up her story well but it's not the obvious happy ending. Life just isn't like that. Even with an imaginary friend that comes to life, My Best Friend and Other Illusions is definitely real.  And reality sometimes falls short of the illusion of what could be. 

Black History Month: The newest update to a youngCanLit book list

In February 2014, I first posted a list (Black History Month: Book list) of youngCanLit that would help young people recognize the significance of Black History Month.  In February 2016, I updated that list as Black History Month: An updated youngCanLit booklist. In 2018, I added more titles (Black History Month: Additional titles). Now two years later, it is incumbent upon me to update this list yet again. As the listing continues to grow (there were 98 titles before today), I will simply add those titles that did not appear on the earlier lists. I encourage young readers and the adults in their lives who want to visit relevant titles for Black History Month to check out those earlier posts in addition to this one to get a fuller picture of the wonderful titles by Canadian creators that celebrate the lives and experiences and accomplishments of many African Canadians, African Americans and others of African ancestry while also giving voice to struggles and history that should not be forgotten.

List 1: Black History Month: Book list (February 10, 2014)

List 2: Black History Month: An updated youngCanLit booklist (February 3, 2016) 

List 3: Black History Month: Additional titles (February 9, 2018)
(With today's list, that's 109 titles!)


PICTURE BOOKS

An African Alphabet
Written by Eric Walters
Illustrated by Sue Todd
Orca Book Publishers
28 pp.
Ages 1-5
2017

Africville
Written by Shauntay Grant
Illustrated by Eva Campbell
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2018
Reviewed here 

A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice
Written by Nadia L. Hohn
Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Owlkids Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2019

FICTION

One Thing That's True
Written by Cheryl Foggo
Kids Can Press
128 pp.
Ages 10-14
1997

YOUNG ADULT

Blue Gold
Written by Elizabeth Stewart
Annick Press
304 pp.
Ages 12+
2014

Freedom's Just Another Word
Written by Caroline Stellings
Second Story Press
232 pp.
Ages 12+
2016
Reviewed here

NON-FICTION

Africville: An African Nova Scotian Community Is Demolished — and Fights Back (Righting Canada's Wrongs)
Written by Gloria Ann Wesley
Lorimer
96 pp.
Ages 9-14
2019

John Ware (The Canadians)
Written by Ian Hundey
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
64 pp.
Ages 9-14
2005

Meet Viola Desmond (Scholastic Canada Biography)
Written by Elizabeth McLeod
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 6-9
2018
Reviewed here

Meet Willie O'Ree (Scholastic Canada Biography)
Written by Elizabeth McLeod
Illustrated by Mike Deas
Scholastic Canada
32 pp.
Ages 6-9
2020

P.K. Subban: Fighting racism to become a hockey superstar and role model for athletes of colour (Recordbooks)
Written by Catherine Rondina
Lorimer
160 pp.
Ages 9-14
2020

What's Up, Maloo?

Written and illustrated by Geneviève Godbout

Tundra Books

978-0-7352-6664-3

40 pp.

Ages 3-7

January 2020

Tackling issues of mental health in picture books requires a special touch. You can be neither silly about it nor aggressive while still getting the message out that there is help. Geneviève Godbout's text and art, always thoughtful and serene in soft pastels and coloured pencils, meets the challenge with style and compassion.

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

When kangaroo Maloo is happy and hopping, she is on top of the world. Life is a bed of roses, pink ones in fact. But when she's not, the hop goes out of her and a grey cloud envelopes her thinking. She walks to her friends who all ask, "What's up, Maloo?" and all she knows is that she's not hopping. There's the baking wombat, the swimming crocodile, and the koala, all who want to help. They attempt to lull her into play with balls in the water, and levitate her with the air from fans but the black cloud around Maloo does not dissipate and she isn't hopping.

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

The friends continue on their walking journey until they find a sail-like sheeting which they spread out and upon which Maloo bounces, hoping for her hop to come back. A bit of fun, a lot of friendship and a little time and Maloo is hopping again, now with her friends in tow!

From What's Up, Maloo? by Geneviève Godhout

Geneviève Godbout's illustrations are so serene and thoughtful, emphasizing a tenderness to Maloo's plight and the compassion of her friends. But still Geneviève Godbout's story stays inspirited, playing with graphic idioms such as Maloo's lack of a spring, or hop, in her step, the black cloud around her as an analogy for depression, and the bed of roses that make up her landscape when she is happy. Geneviève Godbout's What's Up, Maloo? makes me hopeful that, with a little help from friends who are supportive without being controlling or taking charge of her feelings, Maloo can get her hop back whenever the dark cloud descends again.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

It seems highly appropriate that I review What's Up, Maloo? on January 29th which is Bell's Let's Talk Day.  This is the day when media corporation Bell Canada contributes 5¢ to mental health initiatives in Canada for every applicable text, call, tweet, or social media video view in support of Bell Let's Talk.  So let's talk about What's Up, Maloo? to get our own conversation going about using Canadian picture books to support mental health. You'll find me on social media doing just this and I hope you'll do the same.

School Rules!

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Dave Whamond

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-8203-4

32 pp.

Ages 3-8

January 2020

When Friday afternoon at school comes to an end and the kids go home and the teacher rushes out to the bank, Cassandra hides under her desk. You see, Cassandra LOVES school. So even when the tattooed janitor mops the floor and the principal locks up, Cassandra doesn't leave.

From School Rules! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

With the school finally empty, Cassandra comes out to enjoy the books and toys and puzzles of her classroom, all with the company of the classroom pet.  At home, though, her family are going a little crazy when they realize Cassandra is not around. After calls to the police and fire department, her father finds her at school. When he asks her what she's doing there, she tells him, "I like school." Unfortunately, that's not good enough for him and he carries her home.

From School Rules! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

Though the next day is Saturday, Cassandra prepares to go to school. But, of course, the school is locked up tight. So what do you do if you want to go to school.  You buy one! At the Everything Store, she requests  "a school with dirty red bricks, a slightly scary principal, a very nice teacher and a janitor with tattoos on his arm." Apparently they can have one sent to her promptly. So when Sunday comes, her parents find "Cassandra's School" in their backyard and a very happy Cassandra enjoying her school, a little different but a whole lot the same.

From School Rules! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamond

Of course, it's a silly tale. How many kids love school that much?! But isn't it wonderful to think that there are some kids who find such joy at school that they would want to stay there all the time. Robert Munsch's classic silliness abounds and is matched by Dave Whamond's illustrations. From the guinea pig whose facial expressions reflect Cassandra's while he keeps her company, to a household in chaos–there's a cat in a drawer, a dog under the table waiting with a fork, a baby splattered with food and a young girl pulling cheese out of a casserole–and the pajama-clad family reacting to a school in their backyard, School Rules! is a collaboration of wit and wackiness, with a helping of the wonder that comes from finding something that makes you happy. 

From School Rules! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Dave Whamod

Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles

Written and illustrated by Barbara Reid

North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)

978-1-4431-7559-3

32 pp.

Ages 4-8

December 2019

This one may have been released just after Christmas but any picture book by Barbara Reid, the grande dame of plasticine art, could not be overlooked, especially one that will be a valuable teaching tool for young biologists.

From Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles by Barbara Reid

For four species, Barbara Reid illustrates their complete life cycles in three double-page spreads each. There is the monarch butterfly which transforms from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis and butterfly. There is the sunflower which grows from the recognizable hard-shelled seed through germination with root and stem and two cotyledons, to leaves and finally flower and seed again.

From Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles by Barbara Reid

The third species is the green frog which lays many eggs from which tadpoles hatch, and then develop into organisms with back legs and then front legs. The final species is the white oak growing from an acorn which will take root, produce a seedling which grows into a sapling and finally a mature tree. To summarize the cycles, Barbara Reid provides a one-page illustration of each at the end of her book.

From Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles by Barbara Reid

This may be the content of Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles and it is important content for teachers who will be helping young children investigate the relationships between different stages of the same organism.  But Watch It Grow is more than a child's picture book as teaching tool, and that's because the art is that of Barbara Reid.  Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles becomes a celebration of life and the seasons, as plant and animals grow and develop through their life stages. Into each life cycle's story, Barbara Reid brings in a landscape of pond or backyard, woods or meadow, all with the textural and accurately-coloured richness of her plasticine art. Young children will be reaching out, as they always do with Barbara Reid's art, to touch the leaves or the caterpillar or a flower, certain that its softness or fuzziness or crispiness will be palpable and maybe even sonorous.

I know teachers and parents will want to have this book in their library for the teaching of life cycles, which Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles will do flawlessly, but don't ignore the artistry of its illustrations. Young readers will certainly be enamoured with Barbara Reid's art and this will only cultivate further learning.

Last Words

Written by Leanne Baugh

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-576-9

320 pp.

Ages 13+

2019

"I'm sorry" are the last words that Will Szabo speaks to a stranger on the Lion's Gate Bridge before he jumps to his death, but they are the beginning of a new chapter in sixteen-year-old Claire Winters's life as she struggles to understand his suicide.

Just before he jumped, Will hands Claire his cell phone–complete with passcode taped to the back–and this becomes the focus for Claire's probe into his death. She discovers a suicide note, emails, voice mail, text messages and more that help her reconstruct his life. But learning about the young man just leads her to question the way of the world and what hope there is. In fact, Claire's own life begins to unravel as she delves deeper, causing riffs with her boyfriend Ty, friends Izzy and Declan, and straining her relationships with her parents and older sister Belle who is moving to a group home–Belle has Down Syndrome–while also impacting her passion for painting. She speaks to different people, trying to get advice as to how to proceed, including from Paul, the executive director of a hospice, who suggests that

"Sometimes the best way to get to the other side is to go right through the pain, yelling, kicking, and screaming like a crazed fool." (pg. 173)

Then Claire meets Kiki, a teen with cancer, who sees life as a gift and a challenge that she will not deny and Claire begins to wonder who got it right.

It's not unusual for young people to look at the world and see the good and the bad as extremes. Except for a person like Kiki who is on the cusp of losing her life, many become distressed by break-ups and environmental disasters and changes that compel them to take a different perspective from the one with which they've become comfortable. They're not wrong to be distressed but they might not always see the circumstances in the realm of a big picture that might suggest these situations are not worth ending a life.

"...if there's meaning in life, there also has to be meaning in suffering. They go hand in hand." (pg. 241)

Leanne Baugh does not take sides. She doesn't make Claire seem over-the-top in her pursuit of Will's story or a victim of wrong-place-wrong-time circumstances, though it was unfortunate that Claire had to witness something so shocking. Leanne Baugh could have made Kiki into a saint who fights her illness with valour and perseverance but she doesn't. And she certainly doesn't depict Will as a victim or a young man in control of his own life. The paths for these characters, as are our own, are never set in stone and suggesting otherwise would be unfair. Ultimately, Leanne Baugh twists her plot to enable Claire to see her life and those of Will and Kiki from a different perspective, for good or bad, and recognize that, as Emily Dickinson is quoted, "Hope is the thing with feathers."