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CM . . .
. Volume XII Number 20 . . . .June 9, 2006
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Alligator Pie. (Alligator Tales).
Dennis Lee. Illustrated by Nora Hilb.
Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books, 1974/2006.
12 pp., board, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55263-674-7.
Subject Headings:
Children's poetry, Canadian (English).
Preschool / Birth-5.
Review by Gregory Bryan.
***½ /4 |
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The Dreadful Doings of Jelly Belly. (Alligator Tales).
Dennis Lee. Illustrated by Nora Hilb.
Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books, 1983/2006.
12 pp., board, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55263-767-0.
Subject Headings:
Children's poetry, Canadian (English).
Preschool / Birth-5.
Review by Gregory Bryan.
*** /4 |
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Willoughby Wallaby Woo. (Alligator Tales).
Dennis Lee. Illustrated by Nora Hilb.
Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books, 1974/2006.
12 pp., board, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55263-676-3.
Subject Headings:
Children's poetry, Canadian (English).
Preschool / Birth-5.
Review by Gregory Bryan.
**** /4 |
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Silvery / Good Night, Good Night. (Alligator Tales).
Dennis Lee. Illustrated by Nora Hilb.
Toronto, ON: Key Porter Books, 1983/2006.
12 pp., board, $9.95.
ISBN 1-55263-769-7.
Subject Headings:
Children's poetry, Canadian (English).
Preschool / Birth-5.
Review by Gregory Bryan.
*** /4 |
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excerpt:
Alligator pie, alligator pie,
If I don’t get some I think I’m gonna die.
(From Alligator Pie).
Jelly Belly bit
With a big fat bite.
(From The Dreadful Doings of Jelly Belly).
Willoughby, wallaby, wee.
An elephant sat on me.
(From Willoughby, Wallaby, Wee).
The dark is dreaming.
Day is done.
Good night, good night
To everyone.
(From Silvery / Good Night, Good Night).
For over 30 years, Canadian children have delighted in the rhythmical, whimsical poetry of one of Canada’s best-loved writers, Dennis Lee, who is the recipient of many awards. His body of work was recognized through nomination for the internationally prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for a lasting contribution to literature for children. Lee’s playful approach to words serves as an ideal tool for developing and expanding children’s language use. An innovative series of four board books from Key Porter Books now brings Dennis Lee’s popular poetry to an additional, younger audience. The well-known poem, “Alligator Pie,” spawns the title for this series, published as “Alligator Tales.” Five poems are presented, with Nora Hilb providing brand new illustrations for all four books.
The appropriateness of Hilb’s artwork for the younger audience is perhaps best borne out when comparing Hilb’s illustrations for The Dreadful Doings of Jelly Belly against those of Juan Wijngaard’s illustrations for the original, 1983, presentation of the poem. Wijngaard interpreted Jelly Belly as a grossly obese grown man. Wijngaard’s portrayal is far more terrible and sinister. Hilb, on the other hand, portrays Jelly Belly as an enormous baby with a single tuft of grass-green hair. Neither terrible nor sinister, there is something alluring about a baby too chubby for its clothes to contain a big round belly.
In that same, 1983, Jelly Belly collection of poems, Wijngaard illustrated the poems, “Good Night, Good Night” and “Silverly.” There is little disputing that the Wijngaard works are more classical illustrations than appear in the new “Alligator Tales” series. Given the preschool audience, however, Hilb’s simple, yet bright and colourful illustrations seem perfectly appropriate.
An appealing detail of the Hilb illustrations for the Silverly / Good Night, Good Night combination is the fact that, at the end of the “Silverly” poem, a little girl is pictured having fallen asleep while reading a bedtime story. The bedtime storybook is shown, opened to the page where the “Good Night, Good Night” poem starts in this very same book. Similarly, on the final page of the “Good Night, Good Night” poem, Hilb’s illustration shows another young child who has fallen asleep during a bedtime story. The open book on his bed shows the first page of the “Silverly” poem. Some might dismiss this detail as shameless self-promotion, but I like such intricate weaving of a book into the subject of the book. It was fun for me to help my three-year-old daughter to discover this intricacy.
The “Alligator Pie” poem was first published in the 1974 collection of poems also entitled, Alligator Pie. That same collection of poems contained my favourite Dennis Lee poem, “Willoughby Wallaby Woo.” Frank Newfeld illustrated the 1974 collection. By comparison, in the new Alligator Pie and Willoughby Wallaby Woo books, Hilb provides far more colour than her predecessor did. For instance, Newfeld’s single illustration for the “Alligator Pie” poem contains only green shading of a black line drawing. Newfeld’s single illustration for “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” contains only an off-yellow colour and blue shading. By contrast, Hilb seeks to include all the colours of the rainbow and many more besides.
One of the additional beauties of presenting these poems as their own book is that we get to see more illustrations of the characters and events described in each poem. There is, however, a trade-off for this benefit. Where these poems originally were presented on a single page, they now consist of several pages. This necessitates page turning—an act that can disrupt the rhythm so integral to the flavour of Lee’s poetry. This is particularly problematic in three of the four new books where the rhyme extends onto a succeeding page. This disruption to the rhyme and rhythm can deprive the poems of much of their fun. It contributes to what can be an awkward reading experience—on the one hand wanting to pause long enough to take in the illustrations, but on the other hand needing to skip forward quickly enough to maintain the rhythm.
As a matter of personal preference, more so than anything else, I rate Willoughby Wallaby Woo more highly than the other books. The poem is an enchanting example of playing with words, and the illustrations are similarly imaginative and playful. On the final double page spread of Willoughby Wallaby Woo, I was delighted to see the inclusion of directions for extending the poem to enhance further a young reader’s enjoyment of the book, including Lee’s admonition to remember that, “of course, no rhyme is ever wrong.”
I had fun with my daughter, Tegwen, saying,
“Willoughby Wallaby Wegwen
An elephant sat on ______”
Tegwen was thrilled to finish the rhyme with her own name. We then proceeded through all the names of our family and extended family, including the rhyme,
“Willoughby Wallaby Waddy
An elephant sat on Daddy”
Of such fun are great memories made. Thanks to Dennis Lee, Nora Hilb and Key Porter Books for a moment to savour.
Highly Recommended.
Gregory Bryan teaches language and literacy courses in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.
To comment
on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal
use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any
other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
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