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CM . . . .
Volume VI Number 7 . . . . November 26, 1999
Highly recommended.
Helen Norrie is the children's book columnist at the Winnipeg Free Press and an instructor in
children's literature at the Faculty of Education, 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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TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - November 26, 1999.
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In Stella, Star of the Sea, award-winning Montreal artist Marie-Louise Gay introduces two new
characters: a little red-haired girl named Stella and her younger brother, Sam. Stella and Sam are
spending a day at the seashore. As Marie-Louise Gay writes, "Stella had seen the sea once, before
Sam was born. She knew all its secrets." Sam is eager to learn the secrets of the sea but not eager
to venture into the water. He thinks of dozens of questions to delay his first dip: "Is the water
cold?.... Are there any sea monsters? ....Where do starfish come from?" Stella's patience is almost
exhausted before she answers all Sam's questions, but her answers have imagination and flare.
Marie-Louise Gay's text is poetic and inventive. Her pictures, as usual, are colorful, attractive,
and fill most of the pages. They also contain little hidden stories for children to discover: the dog
chasing a crab; a shooting star in the sky; a shark's fin breaking the water. Children will identify
with the reluctant Sam and enjoy both his questions and Stella's answers.