0°Recent Blog Posts - 32 Pages
The Rock from the Sky
The Rock from the Sky is loopy, seriously loopy, and it is Jon Klassen’s best book. With his usual, but elevated signature qualities – the desert dry humour, the entirely original and occasionally subversive storytelling, the shifty-eyed critters – The Rock from the Sky is...
Published at 32 Pages
The Rock from the Sky is loopy, seriously loopy, and it is Jon Klassen’s best book. With his usual, but elevated signature qualities – the desert dry humour, the entirely original and occasionally subversive storytelling, the shifty-eyed critters – The Rock from the Sky is...
Published at 32 Pages
King Mouse
A few months ago, when I first saw an illustration from King Mouse, the new book by Cary Fagan and Dena Seiferling, I knew it would be one of the most beautiful books published this, or any year. In that one illustration of a tiny, pointy-nosed mouse sporting a crown, I was immediately transporte...
Published at 32 Pages
A few months ago, when I first saw an illustration from King Mouse, the new book by Cary Fagan and Dena Seiferling, I knew it would be one of the most beautiful books published this, or any year. In that one illustration of a tiny, pointy-nosed mouse sporting a crown, I was immediately transporte...
Published at 32 Pages
Nobody Hugs a Cactus
Many years ago, a former boss gave everyone on her team a cactus just before the Christmas break. It was an unusually pointy gift, and my suspicion about its inherent symbolism was confirmed a year later, when we all received knock-off Swiss army knives. Stay away – I am prickly. The fact t...
Published at 32 Pages
Many years ago, a former boss gave everyone on her team a cactus just before the Christmas break. It was an unusually pointy gift, and my suspicion about its inherent symbolism was confirmed a year later, when we all received knock-off Swiss army knives. Stay away – I am prickly. The fact t...
Published at 32 Pages
The Honeybee
I love bees. I may have begun another bee book post this way, but the sentiment remains true. I love bees, and I love books about bees. The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall and Canadian illustrator Isabelle Arsenault would make me fall in love with bees even if – gasp – I hated bees. Instead, this...
Published at 32 Pages
I love bees. I may have begun another bee book post this way, but the sentiment remains true. I love bees, and I love books about bees. The Honeybee by Kirsten Hall and Canadian illustrator Isabelle Arsenault would make me fall in love with bees even if – gasp – I hated bees. Instead, this...
Published at 32 Pages
A Perfect Day
I bought this book for the bear. That was enough. The bear with the corn-cob grin. I remember when A Perfect Day was announced in 2016. I said, this will be my favourite book of 2017. I can’t say whether this will prove to be true, but I can say this – the illustration of […]
Published at 32 Pages
I bought this book for the bear. That was enough. The bear with the corn-cob grin. I remember when A Perfect Day was announced in 2016. I said, this will be my favourite book of 2017. I can’t say whether this will prove to be true, but I can say this – the illustration of […]
Published at 32 Pages
Um…yeah.
So I’ve been away from this blog for…I’m afraid to count the days. Months? No solid explanation other than life. Busy, busy life. I aim to do better. I want to do better. Children’s picture books mean everything to me (as does hyperbole), and just because I’ve tempor...
Published at 32 Pages
So I’ve been away from this blog for…I’m afraid to count the days. Months? No solid explanation other than life. Busy, busy life. I aim to do better. I want to do better. Children’s picture books mean everything to me (as does hyperbole), and just because I’ve tempor...
Published at 32 Pages
Rutherford the Time-Travelling Moose
“I rhyme/To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” – Seamus Heaney, Personal Helicon Heaney’s statement, about the act of writing, also resonates for me as a reader. We read to see ourselves – to illuminate our present and our past – to set the darkness echoing. ...
Published at 32 Pages
“I rhyme/To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.” – Seamus Heaney, Personal Helicon Heaney’s statement, about the act of writing, also resonates for me as a reader. We read to see ourselves – to illuminate our present and our past – to set the darkness echoing. ...
Published at 32 Pages
Marguerite’s Christmas
Marguerite’s Christmas isn’t for everyone. The story of a fragile, elderly woman alone on Christmas Eve will leave some wondering if this is appropriate subject matter for children. Others will wonder if its appropriate subject matter for adults, given its juvenile format. But it is a book...
Published at 32 Pages
Marguerite’s Christmas isn’t for everyone. The story of a fragile, elderly woman alone on Christmas Eve will leave some wondering if this is appropriate subject matter for children. Others will wonder if its appropriate subject matter for adults, given its juvenile format. But it is a book...
Published at 32 Pages
The Most Amazing Creature in the Sea
When Brenda Z. Guiberson met Gennady Spirin, the picture book gods and godettes smiled. Since their original collaboration Life in the Boreal Forest, the talented twosome have been creating THE most beautiful, non-fiction picture books around. It’s not possible to pick a favourite, although...
Published at 32 Pages
When Brenda Z. Guiberson met Gennady Spirin, the picture book gods and godettes smiled. Since their original collaboration Life in the Boreal Forest, the talented twosome have been creating THE most beautiful, non-fiction picture books around. It’s not possible to pick a favourite, although...
Published at 32 Pages
The Dark Art of Halloween (updated for 2015)
October is but a mere few hours away from November’s hostile takeover and I’ve yet to post reviews of new Halloween books for 2015, mostly because I have only one. I’m sure there are more, but I’ve been bereft in my picture book trolling. Nevertheless, Leo: A Ghost Story i...
Published at 32 Pages
October is but a mere few hours away from November’s hostile takeover and I’ve yet to post reviews of new Halloween books for 2015, mostly because I have only one. I’m sure there are more, but I’ve been bereft in my picture book trolling. Nevertheless, Leo: A Ghost Story i...
Published at 32 Pages
Job Wanted
I’ve been meaning to write about the wonderful illustrator Chris Sheban for some time now, almost fourteen years, although in my indefensible defense I’ve only had this blog for five of those fourteen years, and I have a lot of books. I first came across Sheban’s work at a Washi...
Published at 32 Pages
I’ve been meaning to write about the wonderful illustrator Chris Sheban for some time now, almost fourteen years, although in my indefensible defense I’ve only had this blog for five of those fourteen years, and I have a lot of books. I first came across Sheban’s work at a Washi...
Published at 32 Pages
Grant and Tillie Go Walking
“I realized that all the really good ideas I’d ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa.” Grant Wood How delightfully strange that a Canadian author and illustrator would create a picture book about the American painter Grant Wood. It’s doubtf...
Published at 32 Pages
“I realized that all the really good ideas I’d ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa.” Grant Wood How delightfully strange that a Canadian author and illustrator would create a picture book about the American painter Grant Wood. It’s doubtf...
Published at 32 Pages
The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston
Few Canadian icons are as beloved as Lynn Johnston. Most everyone has read her Pulitzer Prize nominated comic strip For Better or For Worse, finding their own lives reflected in the everyday activities of the Patterson family. Unlike most comic strips, however, the characters aged and faced real-...
Published at 32 Pages
Few Canadian icons are as beloved as Lynn Johnston. Most everyone has read her Pulitzer Prize nominated comic strip For Better or For Worse, finding their own lives reflected in the everyday activities of the Patterson family. Unlike most comic strips, however, the characters aged and faced real-...
Published at 32 Pages
Home
A very important person in my life once said that if at all possible, when writing, try to avoid cliché. I do my best. However, I can’t help expecting cliché from the children’s section in a bookstore. According to the American Library Association, there are 21,878 children’s bo...
Published at 32 Pages
A very important person in my life once said that if at all possible, when writing, try to avoid cliché. I do my best. However, I can’t help expecting cliché from the children’s section in a bookstore. According to the American Library Association, there are 21,878 children’s bo...
Published at 32 Pages
The Skunk
There is a type of plot device I find irresistible: when a seemingly innocuous element is introduced into a story which proceeds to throw the protagonist’s life into chaos. One of the best examples is Patrick Süskind’s The Pigeon, but it doesn’t really matter, because what’...
Published at 32 Pages
There is a type of plot device I find irresistible: when a seemingly innocuous element is introduced into a story which proceeds to throw the protagonist’s life into chaos. One of the best examples is Patrick Süskind’s The Pigeon, but it doesn’t really matter, because what’...
Published at 32 Pages
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