megram - Index

megram - 55NovOttawa - Index

Reading for
Young Minds
In our annual review of some of the best
books for young readers, we look at
exploring beyond our own territory with
reading that will be sure to inspire and
allow young ones to dream.
By Mary Alice Downie
November/December 2008 • 26 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
Travelling with your grandchildren
is the latest trend in tourism —
and great fun it is too. But there’s
another way to share the world with
them — through books set in ancient
Egypt, the Arctic, medieval Spain, and a
19th-century Ontario settlement of freed
slaves. And there’s not a single carbon
footprint in sight.
Picture Books
Fox Walked Alone
By Barbara Reid
(North Winds Press, $19.99)
The adventures of the most fetching
of foxes en route to Noah’s ark are told in
this prequel to Reid’s Two by Two.
There’s a pre-Greek chorus of two ravens,
a haunting ruined desert city and a tip of
the hat to the Peaceable Kingdom: “So
tooth and claw and fur and feather, they
all lay down to sleep together.” In a word,
the illustrations by the Queen of
Plasticine are dazzling. As one reviewer
wrote;“How does she do it?”
The Blue Hippopotamus
Retold by Phoebe Gilman, based
on a story by Joan Grant
Illustrated by Joanne Fitzgerald
(North Winds Press, $19.99)
“Long, long ago and far away, in the
land of the Pharaohs,” a young hippo falls
in love with a princess.A helpful heron —
transformed from a butterfly — takes him
to a great magician in a cave behind the
pyramids and he is turned into a small
purple toy hippo. Fitzgerald’s tranquil
watercolours include many touches of
Egyptian life. Gentle humour, the pathos
of the neglected toy,and Hapu’s unselfishness
combine to create a small gem worthy
of a Pharaoh’s treasury.