Night Sky Wheel Ride. Sheree Fitch. Illustrated by Yayo. Vancouver, BC: Tradewind Books, 2012. 32 pp., hardcover, $16.95. ISBN 978-1-896580-67-8. Subject Headings: Children’s Poetry, Canadian (English). Ferris wheels-Juvenile poetry. Preschool-grade 3 / Ages 4-8. Review by Ellen Heaney. **** /4

I loved this book!

     East coast author Fitch greets viewers of her website with “Welcome to my seriously joyful filled world of words.” She has written fiction for adults and teens as well as books for younger readers which usually employ jaunty, humourous verse (There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen, Peek a Little Boo).

     Each of the beginning stanzas ends with the same line: “Sister, are you ready to fly?” Before the culmination of the adventure, readers are taken past spreads featuring fantastical carousel animals and a forest of cotton candy ‘trees’ in a rainbow of colours.

     The anticipation is palpable:

Standing in line
we wait wait wait
At last we’re the ones
at the front of the gate
Are we big enough this year, Mama?
Are we brave enough, Brother?
Sister, are you ready to fly?

     Then we see the Ferris wheel, and it is a magical one, with buckets variously depicted as a series of sprouting plant pots, the vanes in clothes dryer and bathtubs dipping down into a whale-filled ocean. This last picture illustrates the lines:

See out to sea, Sister.
Hushshshshshshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Can you hear the mermaids murmur
Beluga whales sing
Feel the whirling stir
Of every little humming phosphorescent thing?

     Fitch takes readers on a wonderful ride here, and Yayo’s dizzifying pictures are the perfect match. A totally satisfying outing for the book characters and the book’s readers alike.

     Night Sky Wheel Ride is a book for school and public library picture book collections.

Highly Recommended.

Ellen Heaney is the Head of Children’s Services at the New Westminster Public Library in New Westminster, BC.

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.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

Hosted by the University of Manitoba.

 

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