Canada Fun!

Canada Fun! is another most worthy contribution to author/illustrator Paul Covello’s already existing collection of board books for the preschool audience. Covello’s text in Canada Fun! serves as a vocabulary builder and consists of single noun terms, such as “Hockey”, “Tobogganing” or “Biking”, or a short gerund phrase like “Building an Igloo”, “Making Maple Syrup”, or “Watching the Northern Lights”.

Design-wise, the book’s illustrations are distributed among eight double-page spreads which are interrupted by seven pairs of facing pages. In terms of the former, each spread focuses on several activities that would/could occur during a single season or in a specific locale. A seasonal example would be an urban, winter spread in which children are seen “Making Snow Angels”, “Building a Snow Fort”, “Building Snow People” and “Tobogganing”. In a rural, forested setting, children are engaged in “Camping”, “Fishing”, “Hiking”, “Canoeing” and “Portaging”. In one pair of facing pages, one page illustrates children “Rafting” and “Kayaking” on a river while the other page finds some children on land “Mountain Biking” and “Rock Climbing”. A fun design deviation occurs with a spread that requires the book to be turned 90 degrees so that readers can experience a snow-covered slope on which children are “Snowboarding” and “Downhill Skiing” before enjoying “Drinking Hot Chocolate” at the hill’s base.

In illustrating Canada Fun!, Covello does not forget the word “Canada”, and, in addition to employing the country’s red maple leaf flag in a few places, especially in the closing Parliament Hill spread of “Watching Fireworks” and “Celebrating Canada Day”, he adds some visual setting details that the adult readers will recognize as being Canadian, with one example being the “Ice Skating” occurring on what can only be Ottawa’s Rideau Canal. Another example would be “Polar Bear Watching” where the watchers are aboard one of Churchill, Manitoba’s specially constructed polar bear-viewing buses. The most obvious, but least effective, Canadian visual references come in a spread labelled “Road Trip” that contains 20 circles linked by a red “road” that can be traversed from left to right (west to east) or the reverse. Each circle contains a small icon-like illustration to represent a part of Canada. And so, for instance, Manitoba is represented by a buffalo, Toronto by the CN tower, and Prince Edward Island by a house with green gables. Given the ages of the intended audience of this board book, without significant adult intervention, the contents of these two pages will be almost meaningless to youngsters. As this spread interrupts the flow of the book’s contents, it would have been better placed right at the end if it had to be included.

After a first reading that has undoubtedly focused on Canada Fun!’s text, everyone needs to return to Covello’s illustrations again and again as there is much more to see in many of them. For example, in the rural forested area referenced above in which children were hiking, portaging, canoeing and fishing, the woods and water are alive with animals and birds, including a beaver, raccoon, porcupine, deer, moose, turtle, squirrel and rabbit while among the birds are Canada geese, ducks, owl and woodpecker. And “What are the campers doing at the fire?” might be a question to be asked of the young viewers.

Covello’s cartoon-style illustrations are highly inclusive in an understated way. For instance, a sledge hockey player joins the canal skaters, and drummers in contemporary dress accompany traditionally dressed dancers at a “Powwow”.

Canada Fun! would make an excellent gift book or addition to home libraries as well as those libraries serving preschoolers and their caregivers.