Contemporary Canadian Picture Books Critical New Literacies The Praxis of English Language Teaching and Learning(PELT) Series Editors Tarquam McKenna (Emeritus Professor, Victoria University, Australia) Mark Vicars (Victoria University, Australia) volume 12 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cnli Contemporary Canadian Picture Books A Critical Review for Educators, Librarians, Families, Researchers & Writers By Beverley Brenna, Richard Dionne and Theresa Tavares leiden | boston This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2542-9396 isbn 978-90-04-46508-4 (paperback) isbn 978-90-04-46509-1 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-46510-7 (e-book) Copyright 2021 by Beverley Brenna, Richard Dionne and Theresa Tavares. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. To dedicated teachers who taught me the beauty and value of picture books: Miss Gill; Dr. Christtine Fondse; Dr. Linda Wason-Ellam; Dr. Joyce Bainbridge – many thanks! – BB To the sales reps who travel bookstore to bookstore, season to season. – RD To my parents – Maria José and Gilson – who taught me that reading is fun and always provided me with amazing books growing up, I’m forever thankful! – TT ∵ Contents Acknowledgements ix About the Authors x 1 Introduction 1 2 Identity Themes 16 3 Places Near and Far 30 4 Traditional Tales and Modernised Folk Literature 40 5 Dual Language Books 51 6 Predictable Books 58 7 Our Living Earth 70 8 Newcomer Experiences 87 9 Older Characters 92 10 Facts & Figures 101 11 Teachable Moments 121 12 Canadian Classics New and Old 151 13 Author and Illustrator Spotlight 169 Epilogue 204 References 207 Credits 209 Index 227 Acknowledgements Gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada for the SSHRC Insight Grant underpinning some of the original re- search that supported this study. Thanks also to the range of authors, illustra- tors, publishers, and others associated with the Canadian picture book indus- try for their input and responses to this project. Special appreciation to research assistant Connor Guillet, whose careful in- sights and suggestions supported a draft of this manuscript, with keen regard to the titles by Indigenous authors and illustrators. Special recognition also to research assistant Irteqa Khan, who spent many hours diligently collecting information about the media used in various pic- ture book illustrations. Also a big thank you to previous research collaborators who helped set the stage for this work: Jean Emmerson, Jing Jin, Irteqa Khan, Miranda Morstad, Shuwen Sun, Bailey Weber, and Yina Liu. And to Peter Carver – tremendous appreciation for all the insights and suggestions as first reader! We are also grateful to the University of Saskatchewan, College of Educa- tion, for providing a home base for this work, and to the team at Brill – you have been wonderful to work with – many thanks! About the Authors Beverley Brenna worked in elementary schools for many years as a classroom and special edu- cation teacher. She is currently a professor in curriculum studies at the Univer- sity of Saskatchewan where her research interests are literacy and Canadian children’s literature. Her most recent book for young people is The Girl with the Cat, a picture book with illustrations by Brooke Kerrigan and published in 2020 by Red Deer Press. She and her husband Dwayne raised three sons with the help of Canadian books and Bev is grateful for every single page! Richard Dionne has been an editor and publisher in the Canadian book business for over twen- ty years. He spent much of that time as publisher of Red Deer Press, a small firm specialising in award-winning Canadian picture books, novels, and non- fiction for young people. Richard holds a graduate degree in history from York University and lives in Toronto, Ontario with his partner Claire. Theresa Tavares is an Interdisciplinary Studies MA student at the University of Saskatchewan. She has an English degree and a passion for Gender Studies, which led her to research the approach of social justice in her favourite form of literature: pic- ture books. Theresa has a professional background in publishing, working with children’s and YA literature in Brazil, and she loves getting lost in the way the words and images seem to waltz in a good picture book. CHAPTER 1 Introduction Some of us love picture books because they mark important times in our lives: – early childhood, when others shared favourite stories with us; – revelations of saying I can read, whether that involved “reading” the pic- tures, memorised text or actual decoding; and – insights from particular books that changed us in some way – Virginia Woolf calls these “moments of being” and James Joyce calls them “epiphanies.” Fast forward and these books are the first ones we will read to our own chil- dren, and later, if we are lucky, to eager grandchildren. Indeed, picture books bring us full circle. We promote them in libraries, we share them in classrooms, and we sing their praises for older as well as younger readers. Canada has a wealth of world class picture books waiting to be read. From a feast for the senses in Julie Flett’s Wild Berries… to the repetitive refrain of Joanne Oppenheim’s Have You Seen Birds? (illustrated by Barbara Reid)… to romping child-friendly texts by Robert Munsch… to the lyrical, narrative cel- ebration of the natural world in Susan Vande Griek’s Loon (illustrated by Karen Reczuch)… to the strong underpinnings of rhyme and rhythm exemplified in the work of Dennis Lee, whose Alligator Pie (and other works) resounds with language play… and to mature themes about equity and independence in Nan Gregory’s How Smudge Came (illustrated by Ron Lightburn), Canadian picture books have for generations made us laugh and cry, learn new things, and imag- ine what if… But do we really know what a picture book is? What do we really know about Canadian picture books? And what can a group of newer titles, published between 2017–2019, tell us about common patterns and themes in picture book publishing? 1 Contents of This Book In this volume we share many of the best, new Canadian picture books on the market as well as spotlight a dozen contemporary authors and illustrators. We also celebrate a list of our favourite timeless national classics. Our focus throughout is on writers and artists living in Canada who publish in English with Canadian publishing houses, and while we undoubtedly have missed © Beverley Brenna, Richard Dionne and Theresa Tavares, 2021 doi: 10.1163/9789004465107_001 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 License. 2 chapter 1 exceptional work published elsewhere and in ways other than through tradi- tional publishers, our work is based on a research study that used this particu- lar lens to focus on brand new books. Our audience includes preservice and in-service teachers, teacher-educators, and librarians, but we encourage anyone who champions children’s literature to enjoy this resource! We hope that families find titles here to fuel shared read- ing experiences, and we anticipate that researchers will draw many of our sug- gested titles into school-based studies. We want readers to be aware of what a rich and diverse body of content we have in Canada; we want to see these books in classrooms, libraries, and homes; we want Canadian titles on recommended reading lists; and, above all, we want these books in the hands of young people. Our readers will find titles organised through particular themes that con- nect well to Canadian school curricula. Families will find fuel for conversations and inspiration for artistic play. Children will “meet” 12 authors and illustrators, relatively new to the field of picture books, whom we introduce in Chapter 13 and whose responses to our interview questions provide fascinating insights into picture book creation. Chapter 13 also connects nicely to classroom stud- ies of authors and illustrators related to English Language Arts outcomes, sup- porting teachers in unit development. Writers and artists can find support in this volume as well – the best advice we have for those who wish to create picture books is to read widely, explore contemporary offerings, and develop stories that mean the most to them. We have grouped many of our new titles – books with copyright dates between 2017 and 2019 – in thematic chapters to help readers navigate the range of content. While some books could logically fit under more than one theme, we have limited inclusion to single chapters, trusting our readers to make further connections among titles.