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Read Up On It Home |
English Titles
When grandma returns from her travels, she brings wonderful gifts back to her granddaughter: "a baobob seed", "the whirr of a hummingbird's wing", "a long white hair from a polar bear", and, of course, the most important gift of all. With each trip, grandma grows a little older; the granddaughter a little bigger. Their love remains steadfast and true. The remarkable plasticine illustrations breathe life into the sparse but lively text (written in rhyme), providing the details, the drama, and the atmosphere of foreign lands and capturing the carefree, loving relationship between the two main characters.
A little girl is quietly soaking in the tub when she asks herself, "What if...There was a purple planet / With purple people in it / Would those purple people play / Whatever purple way they wanted?" So begins this rollicking romp through the zany land of purple, where Mabel Murple (who else?) rides a purple motorbike, skis down purple slopes, and rests in a purple bed. The cartoon-like illustrations, drawn with a predominantly purple palate, explode across the page with humour and vitality. They are a perfect complement to the spunky, quirky verse which is used to tell the story. This is a delightful picture book -- not to be missed.
Arthur Ellis Awards Children's Fiction (The Crime Writers of Canada) For best juvenile mystery novel. Torn Away James Heneghan New York: Viking, 1994, 185 p. ISBN 0670851809 Ages 11 to 14 |
With dust and hard times blowing through his family's farm in depression-era Alberta, 12-year-old Pip is happy to forget his hunger pains and let his imagination roam free in the intriguing world of books. But a book about the Russian Revolution really sets his mind ablaze when he begins to suspect that a key figure from this dramatic event has escaped from Russia and taken refuge right here in his sleepy little town. Could Raspinsky, the mysterious Russian blacksmith, really be Rasputin, the notorious Mad Monk and confidant of the Tsar's family?