As I was in Toronto for IRA 2007, I found several beautiful books by Canadian authors or illustrators. Here is a selection of my favorites.
Enjoy!
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Ancient Thunder
Written and Illustrated by Leo Yerxa
This is a beautiful book about the wild horses that used to live in the Canadian plains. The author and illustrator Yerxa uses his memories of these wild horses as an inspiration for the text and illustration. To create the look of worn leather, paper was hand treated and vibrantly painted to look like authentic First Nation clothing. The result is a book where the clothing and the horses in the illustration seem to move. The text is lyrical and brief to allow the readers to focus more on the illustrations.
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The Highwayman
Written by Alfred Noyes
Illustrated by Murray KimberThis book is the second in a series called Visions in Poetry. Like the other books in this series, the poems are favorites from long ago, but contemporary artists provided the illustrations. This provides a new and fresh approach that may catch the attention of today’s teens. For example, in this 1907 ballad, The Highwayman, the anti-hero rides a horse, however, in the illustrations, he is riding a motorcycle. The villains in the ballad, the redcoat troops, are dressed in long trench coats, instead of the traditional garb of the British Army. The illustrations, done in the film noir style, add to the mystique of a love affair gone wrong. The ballad is exciting to read, and the illustrations grab your attention. In the end, you can’t help but get swept up in the story.
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Solomon’s Tree
Written by Andrea Spalding
Illustrated by Janet WilsonSolomon’s Tree is about a First Nation boy’s relationship with a tree. Solomon is devastated after a storm knocks the giant maple tree in Solomon’s backyard. As a part of his grief, Solomon and his uncle, a Tsimpshian carver, make a mask from a log of the tree. The mask making process described in the book is based on the author’s experience during a mask making workshop and the artwork of Victor Reece. The other masks that the illustrator, Janet Wilson, uses in the book are also masks by Victor Reece. Solomon’s Tree is a beautiful book that melds seamlessly the expertise of Spalding, Wilson, and Reece.
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Imagine a Day
Written by Sarah L. Thomson
Illustrated by Rob GonsalvesAs a companion to their last book, author and illustrator, Sarah L. Thomson and Rob Gonsalves have teamed up together to create Imagine a Day. Just like Imagine a Night, the text and illustrations are as beautiful and fanciful as any daydream. Each illustration shows the fluid nature of our daydreams with objects that seem to blend into other objects. For example, the green steeples of a row of cathedrals fade into the background where they look like tall trees growing on a mountainside. Imagine a Day encourages us to daydream and shows us what our daydreams may look like.