The Log Driver’s Waltz

Wade Hemsworth Illustrated by Jennifer Phelan Simon & Schuster

Here is another classic — but it’s only now gaining life as a quintessentially Canadian picture book. It had its origins as a song written by the late Hemsworth, a folksinger, and gained a legion of fans when it was used in a 1979 animated short released by the National Film Board (directed and animated by John Weldon), with lyrics sung by Kate & Anna McGarrigle. This year’s picture book, gloriously illustrated by Toronto’s Jennifer Phelan, incorporates end papers that hint at its cinematic origins, and adults sharing this book with children would be wise to also dig up a video of the NFB film so kids can hear the tune and enjoy the animation. Sharp-eyed children will then be able to zero in on the concert T-shirt our heroine is wearing in one of Phelan’s watercolour pencil drawings. For all ages.