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CM . . .
. Volume XXI Number 12. . . .November 21, 2014
excerpt:
This highly acclaimed picture book � including a 2013 Governor General�s Literary Award for Illustration finalist accolade �is beautiful in its perfect simplicity. Each page has very few words, but the text (with no capitals and no punctuation) is partnered with illustrations that are a veritable feast of childhood activity. �how to feel the breeze� mirrors a page with a young boy in a smart blue Icelandic sweater riding down a grassy hill on an old-fashioned red bicycle. �how to wash your face� depicts a girl in a yellow raincoat and black galoshes holding her face up to the rainy sky. Feel the rain pitter-patter on your own face if you but close your eyes.
Readers of all ages will especially delight in the final two pages where Morstad teaches readers �how to be�� [turn the page!] �happy� as dozens of beautifully dressed children dance and cartwheel and hop and summersault to the book�s �the end�. Highly Recommended. Gwen Smid is a teacher, a writer, and a very good summersaulter in Ottawa, ON.
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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- November 21, 2014. |
Morstad�s illustrations are stunning because she utterly grasps childhood wonder. For example, the �how to disappear� page shows only a pair of striped socks poking out beneath a red patterned curtain, and readers will need to take a second glance at the �how to feel faraway� page in order to see the daydreamer tucked high up in the tree�s branches.