I Miss You Every Day

Taback, Simms. I Miss You Every Day. New York: Viking, 2007.

When the sun is shining bright / or when it's wet and gray / I think about you all the time / I miss you every day.

From the creator of the Caldecott-winning Joseph had a Little Overcoat, comes a story for anyone who has ever missed someone so much that they dreamed of making themselves into a human pretzel and stowing away in a friend’s suitcase. In this case, our protagonist decides to mails herself from New York to California to join a friend who has moved away:

I’m going to jump inside a nice big box / I don’t care what you say / I’ll write your address on the front / I miss you every day.

The simple rhyming sequences, most of which end with the haunting repetition of “I miss you every day,” create a playful sing-song veneer while leaving room for the reader/listener to fill the book with as much emotion as they want. The story doesn't attempt either to force an intensity of emotion or to avoid it, but works with a light touch and delivers a satisfying ending that reunites and reassures.

Taback’s visual style combines the emotional honesty of the kid-art aesthetic with the masterful design of an award-winning children’s illustrator. The pictures are bold, stylized, colourful and rich with detail (including a lot of environmental print in the form of everything from signs to candy wrappers to postcards to famous picture book covers). Street signs, addresses, and cityscapes give the book a grounded sense of place from which to explore distance and separation - in this case the story arcs from New York to California - but rather than narrowing the audience, this specificity of place serves to make the distance seem more tangible in a way that strengthens a feeling of universal appeal.

This book speaks well to the experience of separation, as distinct from the experience of loss. It might not be the best book to comfort a child for whom a possible reunion is not in the picture, but the emotional content will still resonate for many. If it came in a thin postcard-sized gift version, I can think of several friends who would mail it to their out-of-town sweethearts.

Warning: If you are missing someone very much, don't try reading this book out loud at storytime. I Miss You Every Day is one of those deceptively simple books that just might undo you at exactly the wrong time. For this same reason, it will also be a powerful tool for echoing and affirming the very strong emotions kids carry with them.

Naming the Baby: The Best of the Claremont Review

I haven't even seen the book yet and I'm excited about it! This anthology features the best of young adult (13-19) writing published in the Clarement Review over the past 16 years. Check the CM Magazine review for a more complete description. A fabulous resource for inspiring young writers with the work of other people their age.

If you don't know The Claremont Review, do yourself a favour and check it out. This long-running literary journal is published in Victoria, BC, but features the writing of teenagers from anywhere in the English speaking world. A fabulous place for students to submit their work and possibly even get their first taste of the thrill of publication. The journal is excellent, with some of Canada's finest writers serving as editors, so I can only assume that the quality of this collection will be fantastic. I look forward to reading this book soon.

Shi-shi-etko

Campbell, Nicola. Shi-shi-etko. Illus. Kim LaFave. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2005.

"One, two, three, four mornings left until I go to school." So begins the story of Shi-shi-etko, a young aboriginal girl who is soon to be taken from her family and sent to a residential school. In her last four days with her family, Shi-shi-etko gathers together memories of her home to hold with her until she can return the following summer.

This gentle but profoundly moving story introduces one of the most abhorrent chapters of Canadian history - the story of the forceful and legally sanctified removal of aboriginal children from their families and communities. At the Serendipity conference yesterday, it was fascinating to hear Nicola Campbell speak about trying to find a balance that would allow her to honour the harsh realities of this part of our history and share it with children without simply traumatizing them. It can't have been an easy task, but somehow she has managed to write this book with equal respect for the hearts of the children who will hear this story and the realities of the children who lived this story.

In the way that intense sadness can charge the everyday things around us with incredible sharpness and beauty, the weight of what is about to be lost fills this story with a sense of beauty and connection and quiet focused attention that only makes the impending departure more heartbreaking. The illustrations by Kim LaFave are digitally created, some borrowing from photographs taken by the author, but they have a rich painterly feel that matches Campbell's story. Like the text, the illustrations illuminate the beauty of each plant, place and person that is a part of the coming loss. The images manage to convey joy, wonder and a sense of belonging at the same time as they hold great grief.

Shi-shi-etko is not a textbook that will explain the details or legacy of residential school system to children; instead it is a beautifully told and very human story that offers readers a connected point of entry into a much larger story.

We also got a sneak preview of Nicola's next book, Shinchi's Canoe, which tells the story of Shi-shi-etko's younger brother Shinchi, and takes place primarly at the residential school itself. Another beautifully told story, due out this July.

Serendipity Children's Lit Conference

"Our people will sleep for a hundred years and when they awaken it will be the artists that give them back their spirit." - Louis Riel

As a person with a profound belief in the power of story, I love the way these words shine a light on the importance of art and story as acts of creation, survival, healing, connection and delight. And what better place to hear them than smack in the middle of a day dedicated to sharing and honouring Canadian Aboriginal children's literature.

Serendipity is an annual conference organized by the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable's in celebration of children's literature. And it was worth leaving my house at an ungodly hour last Saturday morning to join a few hundred librarians, writers, teachers, students and lovers of children's literature who gathered in the UBC First Nations Longhouse to hear about the stories behind some of the most beautifully crafted, thoughtful, and moving children's books coming out in Canada today.

Usually I am not much of a fan of all the introductory speechifying at conferences, but after an introduction to the Longhouse by Richard Vedan, a welcome speech by Steven Point that defied the stuffiness of his Lieutenant Governor title, and several heartfelt welcomes, I could feel a palpable difference in the room. We were all ready to get down to story. And what stories there were. We laughed; we cried; we watched a rogue squirrel face off with the leftover bannock and salmon sandwiches. All in all, it was a pretty fine day.

I met some new (stunning!) books, and got to hear the stories behind ones I knew. But, more than anything, I felt incredibly lucky to be entering a profession where story is recognized as a sustaining force in the world. From speakers to casual conversations, so much about the day reaffirmed for me that I was in the right place as a children's librarian. This is professional development? Shhh.... don't tell anyone what a wonderful time we had.

The rockstars of the day were:


Nicola Campbell: Author of Shi-shi-etko and the forthcoming Shinchi's Canoe (two picture books that tell the story of the residential school system in Canada)





Earl Einarson: Author of The Moccasins






Julie Flett: Illustrator of Zoe and the Fawn (CM review) and The Moccasins







Diane Silvey: Author of numerous novels and information books for children including The Kids book of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (CM review)






Richard Van Camp: Author of several books including Welcome Song for Baby, A Man Called Raven, and What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?







Leo Yerxa: Author and illustrator of several books including Ancient Thunder and Last Leaf First Snowflake to fall

Persepolis - the movie!

If you loved Marjane Satrapi's two autobiograhical graphic novels about growing up in Iran during the time of the Islamic Revolution, you won't be disappointed by this movie. It's been a long time since I saw a movie that so faithfully brought a book to life, while going beyond the original to add new bits of brilliance. It was so fabulously good that it seemed almost as if Satrapi herself helped create it.... oh, right - she did. While the movie was created using a mostly black-and-white graphic style similar to the original drawings, the addition of sound and motion serve both to make the heartbreak more devestating and the funny even funnier. This film combines seamless high-tech mastery with the appeal and immediacy of the low-tech aesthetic. And although the story takes place in the face of war, hardship, seperation, depression, and social limitations - when this film is funny, it is funny funny funny. The "Eye of the Tiger" dance scene has got to be one of my favorite musical scenes of all time. This is one of the few instances where reading a book will not ruin the movie, and seeing the movie will not ruin the book. If you haven't already - go out and enjoy!