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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 16 . . . . April 14, 2000
excerpt: Out on the porch the wind whipped the snow into tiny white drifts, like meringue on a big frozen pie. 
Jane Barclay's first book has already won the 1998 The Writers' Union of
Canada (TWUC) Writing for Children Competition. The text is a mixture of
first person narrative and rhyming sequences that describe a cold that
would send any reader crawling back into bed under a warm quilt. Barclay
takes the reader through many familiar experiences: frost on the window,
the cat who wants outside but quickly scratches to get back inside, a
squirrel rummaging for seeds, the car that won't start, and the walk to
and from school. And what child hasn't wondered if there was a huge
monster living under the sewer grate that seems to breathe in the cold of
a winter day? As a complement to the very expressive language, Janice
Donato has provided frosty images in beautiful pastel shades. The
illustrations also appear wonderfully animated as the snowman's arms blow
in the north wind or the cold whistles into the house, swirling around the
young boy's boots. Here is an excellent book for motivating young children
to use descriptive and imaginative language when writing about living in
Canada in the winter. Once they have listened to Barclay's first
description of the "freezing, sneezing, goose-bumpy,
teeth-chattering...kind of cold," they will be bubbling over with their
own ideas to describe the cold they know so well. The continued repetition
of the title question, "How cold was it?" is also an attractive feature
for young children. The language in the narrative text, however, is often
too sophisticated and lost on the targeted audience. Nevertheless, add
this book to your poetry support collection.
Recommended. Susan Fonseca is a teacher-librarian at Glenwood School in Winnipeg, MB.
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
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - April 14, 2000.
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