Blue Spruce Nominees

The Blue Spruce Award is the Ontario Library Association Award for books aimed at kids in Kindergarten to grade 2. Like the other Forest of Reading awards, it is voted on by kids who have read the books, and the winner will be unveiled this week.

I’ve tried to get my hands on as many of the ten titles as I could, so I can tell you about some really great, recent Canadian picture books, and then share the winner with you once it is announced. Here are some of this year’s nominees:

Violet
by Tania Duprey Stehlik
Second Story Press
ISBN: 978 1 897187 60 9

Violet is worried about starting at a new school, despite her mother’s assurances that she just has to be herself. The first day goes fine – until some kids see her dad pick her up and ask why she doesn’t look like him, setting off a whole cascade of new feelings about how she looks. Violet, you see, is the child of a red mom and a blue dad, and doesn’t look like any of the red, blue, or yellow kids in her school.

This book is clearly aimed at children of mixed heritage, as the author is herself, and seeks to help them gain understanding and acceptance of their place in the world. I felt it was a little purpose-written, which I am not a big fan of, and thought the substitution of rainbow colours did not take away political issues with the topic so much as give it a feel of a gimmick. For a look at the range of appearances that you might see in a racial group, I much prefer Sandra L. Pinkney’s Shades of Black or I am Latino, or Charles R Smith’s Brown Sugar Babies. Though none of these take on the issue directly, I think they make the point about the spectrum of people beautifully and without heavy-handed messages.

Willow’s Whispers
by Lana Button
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 978 1 55453 280 3

Willow has a teeny tiny little whisper of a voice, and when she starts school, she quickly discovers that she is getting lost in the shuffle of other, more assertive children. Her father assures her that she has a bigger voice in her somewhere, and that someday, it would find its way out. After some fretting, she comes up with a creative solution that allows her to use a full voice, and finds that her day goes much better. By the end of the day, she is even able to speak aloud without the tool that she had devised for herself!

This is a sweet little story, if somewhat basic in its telling, and certainly worth a look for a more timid child. I think opinion here is going to be well divided over the illustrations, though, which are drawn super-simply, in what is essentially a child’s style.

C’mere, Boy!
by Sharon Jennings
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 978 1 55453 440 1

A dog wants a boy. He finds a leash, asks his mom to buy boy food, and attends an obedience class to learn how to train the boy he is sure he will soon have. Finally, he goes out determined to bring home a boy – and does, indeed, find his way to a boy, though he doesn’t quite get to bring him home.

There are parts here that don’t work as well as I would have liked, as if the concept wasn’t exactly fitting, so a few places had to be stretched a little out of shape to turn the idea into a full story. This is a cute premise, though, and the illustrations are fun and
light-heartedly cartoonish. I think a kid like mine, who is obsessed with dogs, wouldn’t worry about those details and would enjoy the story perfectly well, as the humour is well-pitched to kids in grades 1-3, especially.

Jack the Bear
by Christina Leist
Simply Read Books
ISBN: 978 1 894965 97 2

Jack the Bear is pretty much just sitting under a tree sharing a little honey with a squirrel, so Nosy Fox is a little mystified when Wise Owl tells him that Jack is making the world a better place. He runs through all the people that he thinks do important things that affect the world – politicians, scientists, philosophers, and so on, only to have it pointed out that Jack is doing something very simple, but very valuable – making that squirrel happy.

This could be preachy. It could be overly cute. Instead, it is charming and makes an important point about the importance of the everyday little acts of regular people (or animals, as the case may be) that is accessible to a nice range of ages. The illustrations certainly help to set the tone of the story, too – cute, but bold and offbeat, they illustrate the conversation going on and help create some very appealing characters and an extra dash of humour in the cartoony faces of the squirrel and the beaver, particularly. This might possibly be my favourite of the six I’ve read, though I do also love the last one of this bunch, too.

Have I Got a Book for You!
by Melanie Watt
Kids Can Press
ISBN: 978 1 55453 289 6

Melanie Watt is the funny lady behind Chester the cat and Scaredy Squirrel, so we know she’s got a sense of humour and a knack for quirky, lovable characters. This salesman is no exception, and with the entire book becoming essentially a large sales pitch for “a book,” the many jokes relating to sales tricks and tactics make this a book for an older or more sophisticated child.

This book is in some ways simpler than her others, as there is no plot, and the drawings are less detailed. The stripped down feel, as well as the many hard sell attempts, contributes to the feel of a commercial rather than the meatier, more plot-reliant format of a real book (or show). It’s fun, and funny for those who will get it, but I did sort of miss getting involved in the fate of the character, as I do with Chester or Scaredy.

Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion
by Jane Barclay
Tundra Books
ISBN: 978 0 88776 951 1

This is a quieter, more serious book than the others, and takes on the topic of war and remembrance in an approachable way for even younger kids. As a grandfather prepares to march in a parade of veterans, his young grandson asks him questions that he answers with descriptive expressions involving animals to reveal the emotions of the experiences. It’s a simple but effective approach, concentrating on one person’s feelings about such a large and potentially overwhelming subject for young people.

Adding immeasurably are the gorgeous illustrations, which show the animals in ghostly form, shadowy companions always with the grandfather. The tenderness between the pair is evident throughout, and the subdued colour palette suits the sombre mood perfectly. Simply lovely.