Sing a Song of Bedtime by Barbara Reid (Toronto, North Winds Press) $20
Buying the perfect gift for a new baby just got a lot easier with the publication of Barbara Reid's companion to Sing a Song of Mother Goose.
Reid's work is instantly recognizable - her vibrant and glowing illustrations are made by pressing plasticine onto a board background. The detail she is able to achieve through this process is absolutely amazing.
Thirteen classic nursery poems, songs and rhymes, each with a full-page illustration, are included in this oversize picture book. The pages of text are also accompanied by smaller decorative motifs. The plasticine adds a 3D quality to the illustrations that causes them to practically leap off the page.
Reid has been the deserving recipient of many awards over the years including the Governor General's Award for Illustration for her book The Party. She is also a member of the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada and won the 2013 Vicki Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People for her body of work. We are very lucky to have a Canadian author-illustrator of this calibre and it is likely that kids will pore over her books for generations to come.
Other excellent Canadian compilations of Mother Goose rhymes are also available:
Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee presents humorous Mother Goose-style poems with Canadian settings.
A Child's Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by Canadian artist Kady MacDonald Denton.
Mother Goose: A Canadian Sampler, illustrated by a group of Canadian illustrators in a board book format.
Fran Ashdown was the children's librarian at the Capilano branch of North Vancouver District Public Library. She can recite at least 50 Mother Goose rhymes to her grandkids.
