MY MOTHER'S LOVES: STORIES AND LIES FROM MY CHILD­HOOD Stephane Poulin Willowdale (Ont.), Annick Press, 1990. 32pp, cloth, ISBN 1-55037-150-9 (paper) $6.95, ISBN 1-55037-151-7 (cloth) $14.95 Available in French as Les amours de ma mere. CIP Grades 1 to 6/Ages 6 to 11 Reviewed by Ellen Pauls. Volume 19 Number 1 1991 January The childhood recollections of the author-illustrator form the basis of this often rollicking modern tale. "Lies" (tall tales) from the author's childhood are really extensions of real life. For instance, the family house "had only one room so it was impossible to fit both the furniture and my family in at the same time." Full-page illustrations brimming with exaggerated humour, imagination and warmth show how the family, made up of the mother and her nine children, managed to have a lot of fun together in their tiny house and narrow yard. The mother and her nine loves played baseball in summer, tobogganed off the roof in winter, and took in Tuba the elephant who had escaped from the zoo. When the mother meets and falls in love with a man and soon afterwards marries him, the children from both side of the marriage are seen playing leap­frog together, having themselves a jolly good time. Here's a picture-book that begins with a happy family and ends with a happy, albeit changed, family. This book will evoke a response from young and old. Unfortunately, the text is somewhat disjointed and the story-line too sparse. It's the superb illustrations with their richness of detail that carry this story. Ellen Pauls, Hopewell School, Ottawa, Ont.