Water Water

Written and illustrated by Jessica Bromley Bartram

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-556-7

32 pp.

Ages 5+

March 2021

Water Water is truly a summer book. It's about being on a lake, above and below, observing, feeling and imagining. It's about the known and the unreal, the contemporary and the old. And it's all from one young girl's perspective.

From Water Water by Jessica Bromley Bartram

As the child slips into the summer lake water, she experiences the slants of sunlight, the clouds of minnows and the striped rocks that contour the lake bottom. There's bass and crayfish below and swallows, loons and gulls above. Even as the day progresses into the night and sleep, the lake is her source of contemplation.

From Water Water by Jessica Bromley Bartram

She imagines the shoals as animals, whether an elephant or a pod of whales or even the Loch Ness monster. Moreover, though she cannot dive to the bottom of the deep lake, she pictures ancient sturgeon and musky among the ruins of steamships sunk by past storms. She is sure that she hears their whisperings.

Their words weave through every trough and crest until the lake is filled with stories that whisper around me into the night, telling of lighthouses and monster waves, ghost ships and black water.

Though the weather changes and the lake with it, she revels in its transformations, acknowledging them and those of its elements as part of the natural world around her.

From Water Water by Jessica Bromley Bartram

Water Water is a summertime tribute to the nature of a lake and a young girl's connection with it and its many elements, biological and physical and even imaginary. Like summer, it is leisurely, moving at a pace appropriate for warm weather. Even when the weather turns darker, cold and tumultuous, it's energetic but relaxed, as it cannot be changed and only be accepted. 

 

Though I've reviewed  Jessica Bromley Bartram's work previously as the illustrator of  Summer North Coming by Dorothy Bentley (2019), I think the Ottawa artist has enhanced her impression by connecting her artwork with her own words and personal experiences. (Her dedication includes a reference to "Georgian Bay, my heart's home.") There's an organic feel to her artwork, which appears to be primarily gouache and watercolour, and is perfectly in keeping with Water Water's raw nature. The water feels warm, the algae on the rocks is slimy and the wildlife skitter along above and below. 

For children who are fortunate enough to spend any time this summer on a lake, and for those who reminisce about the times they did, Jessica Bromley Bartram delivers us to that place for a sensory dip and a visit that is both hers and all our own.

Peggy's Impossible Tale

Written by Slavia Miki and Roy Miki

Illustrated by Mariko Ando

Tradewind Books

978-1-926890-21-0

58 pp.

Ages 4-8

June 2021

 

In eighteen short chapters, some as brief as two pages of which one is an illustration, Slavia Miki and Roy Miki tell the story of guinea pig Peggy as she becomes friends with Lisa and becomes part of a family. It's sweet and loving and it's the kind of animal story I can get into.

Told from the guinea pig's perspective, young readers join Peggy as she is adopted from the pet store and taken home. Her squeaks affirm she understands Lisa and, in fact, she teaches the child to understand those squeaks through repetition. Peggy learns to tell time e.g., when Lisa comes home from school, and even how to climb stairs and walk on a leash. From learning about the dangers of electrical outlets to the crow and cat, Peggy proves she's one smart guinea pig and more than worthy of a Special Pets Contest award.

From Peggy's Impossible Tale by Slavia Miki and Roy Miki, illus. by Mariko Ando

For children who've just learned to read, Peggy's Impossible Tale will give them a great story while building their confidence to read chapter books. That same confidence in trying new things and developing an understanding of new concepts is what made Peggy so extraordinary. So Slavia Miki and Roy Miki, who also wrote Dolphin SOS (Tradewind, 2014) together, have charmed little ones with an animal story and given them a message about compassion and friendship that's a little different.

From Peggy's Impossible Tale by Slavia Miki and Roy Miki, illus. by Mariko Ando

Though most early chapter book have some artwork, the illustrations by Vancouver's Mariko Ando, a printmaker, are plentiful. Her artwork graces every double-spread, giving us a sense of Peggy and Lisa's relationship as well as Peggy's spirit. From scenes of Peggy facing a daunting staircase or hiding from the air-sucking machine and cuddling with Lisa, Mariko Ando takes us into Peggy's heart. 

Simple but engaging, Peggy's Impossible Tale shows young readers that the impossible isn't always so, whether for guinea pig or child, and that challenging any improbability can be an accomplishment in itself. And there's a cute guinea pig.

Starboy: Inspired by the Life and Lyrics of David Bowie

Written and illustrated by Jami Gigot
Henry Holt and Company
978-1-250-23943-3
40 pp.
Ages 4-8
May 2021 

Fans of musician David Bowie will certainly welcome this new picture book from Jami Gigot, now of Vancouver, but anyone who has ever felt different and unable to fit in without compromising self will appreciate Starboy.

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

This is the story of David who felt different, like maybe he'd fallen to Earth from outer space. His mismatched eyes, skinny legs (perfect for dancing) and keen hearing with sticky-out ears alluded to his difference. And then there was the "cosmic murmur" or "chattering of stars" he could hear and got his body moving and his toes tapping. Then he felt "connected to the universe and the rhythm of the stars."

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

But at school, his need to move and live with colour was not appreciated. When the kids asked him what planet he was from, he wondered too, though he made efforts to fit in. 

Though the stars could bring out the spark in him, it would go away if he closed his window. That is, until that same spark came through his radio and he realized it was music that was giving him the spark. He started making his own music, with homemade instruments, taking the spark with him wherever he went.

His eyes FLASHED,
his toes TIP-TAPPED,
and his hips SHIMMY-SHAKED!

The music fed his imagination and, with a revolution in world music–Elvis Presley is seen in the news–it was feeding those around him too. 

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

No one can deny the contributions of David Bowie to the music world. Through more than several generations, his music evolved in time and space, created in permutations that were both personal and worldly. From a child who felt different but found a spark in the greater universe and then in music, David Bowie evolved, accepting his inspiration and his métier as he needed it to be, not as prescribed by others, and never languishing in one genre of music or style. Playing off of Bowie's many personalities as well as relevant lyrics, particularly from his "Ziggy Stardust" album, Jami Gigot lets us see this boy who found the music in his soul by looking to the stars but who lived a grey life by silencing it. The colour was always there, especially in the brilliant pinks and purples that swirl in and around him, but it's when he finally feels heard, that the colour lives in him.

From Starboy by Jami Gigot

Jami Gigot may honour David Bowie with her Starboy story but she tells all children that they can be themselves and it will be glorious when they do and are heard.

Sunny Days

Written by Deborah Kerbel

Illustrated by Miki Sato

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-197-7

24 pp.

Ages 2-5

June 2021

 

On the heels of Snow Days (2020) and just before Windy Days (due out in October), Deborah Kerbel and Miki Sato take little ones out into the sunshine to enjoy the weather and to rhyme their way through with solar brilliance.

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

From rubbing sleep from one's eyes to reading outdoors and planting seeds in the spring, children are escorted by the sun. Then with summer comes outdoor play in flower meadows, in the water and on a beach, and while taking sanctuary under an umbrella.

Prickly sun, burning heat

Cool shade and an icy treat

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

As the sun gets lower in the sky, the crickets come out and the shadows grow long, and finally sleep comes for both child and our brightest star.

Evening sun, cricket song

Shadows stretching tall and long

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

The rhymes may seem simple but there is a richness in Deborah Kerbel's take on what children experience in the sun. What's most important is what they feel, what they see, what they notice, and how it affects them. After all, Sunny Days is a book for our youngest children, connecting with them and their realities. There are the sensations of the blazing sun freckling the skin and the drying of mud. There is sunshine everywhere and anywhere, including an urban setting, a backyard, a beach or a park and Sunny Days shines on the lives of children's routines, joys and play. 

From Sunny Days by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Miki Sato

I've always loved textured illustration and Miki Sato's paper collages are becoming a favourite, doing more than just following Deborah Kerbel's words. The artwork gives us crumbly soil in which seeds are dropped, cooling water lapping onto sandy shores, and angry clouds having left puddles for mud pies. The quality of Miki Sato's artwork infuses Sunny Days with more than just warmth and light; it also gives a sense of place and pursuit.

My recommendation for enjoying Sunny Days? Get yourself and your young charge on a blanket on the grass or the sand, or on a bench in a park or in yard. Let the child hold the book which is in Pajama Press's Toddler Tough hardcover format (padded cover, rounded corners and thick paper) and read it aloud, asking questions and even doing the fun and easy science experiments on the final page of the book. Then read it again on a rainy day to remember what sunny days are like.  I suspect your child will start learning the rhymes and reading along with you soon enough and you might even encourage a new curiosity with weather or the solar system. Who knows what Sunny Days may bring?

Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library

Written and illustrated by Brian McLachlan

Imprint

978-1-250-26829-7

128 pp.

Ages 8-12

June 2021

For those middle-graders who want an adventure that is uniquely their own, or for those who love RPGs and have been told to get off their tech, or for those who love a good story with amazing characters, humour, and fantasy worlds of surprising elements, Brian McLachlan's Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library ticks all the boxes.

From Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library by Brian McLachlan

To undertake their quest in the world of Chimeria, readers are invited to pick a team of three heroes from Javen the Elven Druid; Coran the Human Priest; Blade the Flowerkin Sneak; Zix the Dragonfolk Wizard; and Crax and Tonk the Dwarven Barbarian Brothers. Each has unique powers and optional backstories about family, fears and habits which will help the reader complete the quest.

From Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library by Brian McLachlan

And the quest? Queen Evergreen, who rules over Chimeria, with her friend and advisor Marisha and daughter Princess Violet, has been gifted with a poisonous book, imbued with bad magic. Instead of working towards keeping harmony with all the people of Chimeria as she has always done, she begins to see Marisha as tricking her into discriminating against the human-like Kith. She tries to fight it but she slips into a deep sleep. While her people look for the source of the book, the heroes of the story, i.e., whoever readers have chosen, are tasked with searching out the five ingredients needed to cure her of the book's poison. These include a star diamond, a blank lotus, a ghost cloud, a dragon lime and a skrim (a water creature).

Like the original pen-and-paper role-playing game of Dungeons and Dragons, it's advised that young readers keep track of their characters and their abilities as well as the items they acquire or lose, including different coloured pearls. 

From Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library by Brian McLachlan

As they enter realms that include caverns and a maze, a jungle, the mountains, the sky and a spheramid, your heroes meet centaurpedes, phantomcap mushrooms, rock blobs, dragonfolk bandits and more. There are opportunities to join forces with others like the Flowerkin Glowvin or the bard Harmony but it's all up to the reader how the quest will be completed.

From Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library by Brian McLachlan

The fun thing about Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library is that Brian McLachlan has set it up so that the quest is always completed and young players (readers?) don't have to worry that they will be killed off before achieving their mission. Even better, they can complete the mission repeatedly but with different combinations of heroes with different backstories while altering their selections along the way. There will always be laughs with riddles and jokes, a fart elemental or a ghost barf, and much play with words like the Widow the Wisp and the Hot Steppers.

 

But the artwork is what will draw young readers in. It's vibrant and imaginative, fantastic in its diversity of characters and elements, landscapes and stories. Brian McLachlan bases his characters in animals, plants, humans and otherwise. They use different pronouns, i.e., she/her, he/him and they/them, and are coloured everything from purple or brown to green and pink. These differences, in fact, are what the poisonous book wants to use to separate Chimeria, encouraging discrimination and strife between distinct creatures. Thankfully the Queen recognizes that the book was a mask "to hide the truth and frighten us with a false image" (pg. 102) and that "We might look different, but we share universal needs and feelings." (pg. 103)

He will get kids reading and imaginatively playing with Complete the Quest: The Poisonous Library while paying homage to books and book people–there are books everywhere and librarians and readers galore–but Toronto cartoonist Brian McLachlan has made some powerful statements about diversity and inclusiveness and done so with colour and whimsy. This is certainly a quest worth undertaking.

This is a Dog Book!

Written by Judith Henderson

Illustrated by Julien Chung

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0493-4

40 pp.

Ages 4-7

June 2021

Gertrude Stein may have written that "A rose is a rose is a rose" but this bunny is working very hard to convince a community of dogs that he isn't. Isn't a bunny, that is.

From This is a Dog Book! from Judith Henderson, illus.by Julien Chung

From the outset, a red stripe-shirted rabbit is told by an enormous dog who spans most of a double-spread that he cannot be part of this book because it's a book about dogs and he is a bunny. And so, the bunny begins to try to convince an assortment of dogs that he is a dog. Though they enjoy the biscuits he brings, they decide to test his doggy-ness.

From This is a Dog Book! from Judith Henderson, illus.by Julien Chung

He is asked to prove he can run and catch a ball, wag his tail, and put on the puppy-dog eyes, performing admirably. And though he gets waylaid with thoughts of treats like lettuce, cauliflower and brussels sprouts, he's always ready to distract his investigators with biscuits.

Ummm...Do you mind if we come back to that question later?

 

In the meantime, may I interest you in a cookie?

From This is a Dog Book! from Judith Henderson, illus.by Julien Chung

Despite his reluctance to undertake in the important doo-doo test, the bunny passes, especially after answering one critical question about being a friend. 

 

Montrealer Judith Henderson, best known for her Big Words Small Stories series, uses dry humour to poke fun at a familiar need to fit in and be included. This bunny just wants to be part of the dog book and proving he's a dog is the only way. While the dogs may have him jumping through hoops–it's only a pun–to prove himself, This is a Dog Book! speaks to our common inclination to be part of a community and participate in that community with others. It also speaks to the efforts many will go to in order to become accepted and the anguish of not being so. This singularity of purpose focuses the story and the art.  So it's not surprising that Julien Chung, also from Montreal, keeps his illustrations, which were rendered digitally, very economical. Except for a few splashes of red, as in the bunny's shirt, a ball, and a biscuit box, the book essentially comprises of black-and-white illustrations of the dogs and a bunny. (Oh, there is one more animal that shows up, still black-and-white though.) Yet, Julien Chung allows us to see a rich and diverse community of dogs: large ones, fuzzy ones, and short-legged ones. Even with few lines, it's evident there's a poodle, a dachshund, and a Shar-Pei. So while the bunny fits in physically–he's just an animal with a small tail, large feet and long ears–he's still seen as a different species. That is, until he isn't. Judith Henderson and Julien Chung let us see that it's not our differences upon which we should focus, it's our similarities that will ultimately unite us.

Now, about the cow...

Poem in My Pocket

Written by Chris Tougas

Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0145-2

24 pp.

Ages 4-7

June 2021

 

Gone are the days when poetry was the amusement only of romantics and the learned. With poet laureates and spoken word artists becoming part of the vernacular, everyone should feel comfortable to carry poems in their pocket and be inspired to share them. But what if a poem escapes before you're ready?

From Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

Before Chris Tougas's story really begins, readers will see a child composing text, their earlier efforts discarded on crumpled papers littered around them. As they walk away, the finished poem, folded in a back pocket, begins to edge its way out of the ripped bottom. Witnessed by their companion, a white chicken, the child soon realizes that the words and thoughts, emotions and rhymes have flung themselves out into the world, scattering across

landscapes of colourful homes and businesses, into the sky and across a wild setting of cacti and yucca. 

From Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

With language as colourful as their surroundings, the child tries to retrieve the letters, some mixed up into nonsense words, others forming playful puns and most elusive to their efforts to retrieve them.

Scribbled thoughts were scattered–

there were letters here and there.

Mixed-up words were whipped about

and mingled in midair.

From Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

When the child does finally gather some words up, they try to recreate the verse but are unable to do so before the words are sowed into the soil with rain to germinate into something even grander.

From Poem in My Pocket by Chris Tougas, illus. by Josée Bisaillon

The letters and words of this child's creative imaginings may have escaped into the world but Chris Tougas shows us that how fortunate that accident truly was. The child may be bereft initially at having lost the structure of their poem, but the search to retrieve the bits and pieces carries them to many locations where the words play and inform and enrich. With their exodus, they have fostered the beginnings of new poetry in the form of a poetree. 

 

Though illustrator Josée Bisaillon has given us a South American flavour to the story, as hinted with the llamas, vegetation and food, this could be the story of an aspiring poet anywhere. The vibrancy of her digitally-rendered artwork carries the reader through communities of busyness into the quiet of the wild, manifesting the very nature of poetry. It can be solemn or angry, bright or clouded. It can speak to and about people, animals, plants or intangibles like emotions. The words may be the basis for the poetry but the creator's originality to mix and manipulate, sculpt and express gives it its unique form. 

 

When National Poetry Month comes around next April, get your own poem into your pocket and share it with the world. It doesn't have to be your own, though that would be cool. It's the act of sharing that inspires.