DEIRDRE BAKER
Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear
By Lindsay Mattick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (Harper, 50 pages, $19.99, ages 4-7) Before Pooh was Winnie-the-Pooh, she was a bear cub named Winnipeg by Harry Colebourn, the veterinarian soldier who bought her in White River, Ont., on his way to serve in the First World War. Here, Harry’s great granddaughter tells her young son the story of how Harry took Winnie to England, leaving her with the London Zoo when he shipped for the front. Christopher Robin befriended Winnie at the zoo; indirectly, she inspired A.A. Milne’s famous stories. Mattick’s prose is humourful and warm, and with Blackall’s illustrations — clear, soft colours, idyllic landscapes, fresh faces — this reads as a happy mix of fairy tale, war story and family lore. Blackall’s Winnie has a ton of personality, as winsome as a bear can be.
The Only Child
By Guojing (Schwartz and Wade, 98 pages, $23.99, ages 4-7) In this wordless story, artist Guojing draws on memories of being a lonely, only child growing up under China’s one-child policy. In softly shaded pencil illustrations, we see a child left alone when her parents go to work. When she tries to take the bus to her grandmother’s, she gets off at the wrong stop — in a shadowy wood. Rescued by a gentle buck, she’s transported on a dreamlike journey over clouds and even into the belly of a whale before she’s reunited with her parents. Guojing’s shadowy grain and soft curves create a kindly, almost mythical aura, a nod to imagination’s refreshing and comforting powers. This little girl’s loneliness is clear, but so too is her humour, resourcefulness, and capacity for affection.
A Year Without Mom
Written and illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova (Groundwood, 168 pages, $19.95, ages 9-12) A stylish, plaintive account set in 1990s Moscow, where 12-year-old Dasha records the traumas and uncertainties of early adolescence, a year spent living with her grandparents while her mother studies in the U.S. The excitement of meeting a teen actor, the agony of a crush, the pain of changed friendships — all this resonates cross-culturally. But Tolstikova’s restrained expression and subtly coloured pencil-and-ink wash drawings convey a sparsely furnished world, one in which grandparently love is strong, but missing mom subdues every moment. “Seeing her is like taking a breath after holding it for a year,” Dasha says on her mother’s return. Excellent.
The Wrinkled Crown
By Anne Nesbet (Harper Collins, 384 pages, $21.99, ages 8-12) Linnet’s done the forbidden: played the lourka, the local stringed instrument, before turning twelve. She expects to die for it; instead, it’s her best friend Sayra who fades into the unreachable realm called Away. Searching for a cure for Sayra, Linnet leaves her familiar, magical hills, travelling into lands where mathematical precision, applied science and artisanal craft contend against each other, and peace is threatened by weapons that do “something terrible to the structure of the world.” Intertwined with the adventure and visual richness of this fantasy fable is an exploration of the tricky relationship of science, logic and imagination — lightened by a cosy narrative voice that punctuates drama with humour.
Mister Max: The Book of Kings
By Cynthia Voigt, with illustrations by Iacopo Bruno (Knopf, 338 pages, $19.99, ages 812) In a third (seemingly final) volume, Max the Solutioneer uses his aptitude for problem-solving to arrange a trip to the (fictional) South American country Andesia, where his actor parents are being forced to posture as king and queen. Max’s plan involves more than a little acting on his part, too — especially when his father takes over the script. Modestly paced, this story depends on thinking, on using logic and psychological insight to engineer solutions. Our self-sufficient hero is at his independent, reasoning best; but particularly striking is his surprised frustration at having his egotistical, bombastic father back in his life — a feeling that may hit home with many readers.