Per-Henrik GürthBesprekingen

Using his typical black-outline, bold artwork, Gurth highlights important landmarks, historical sites, and tourist destinations in Toronto. Rather than people his illustrations, he uses cartoon Canadian animals, ncluding bears, beavers, moose, and raccoons. The real test of an ABC picture book is how the author handles the tricky letters: Q, X, Z. Luckily, Toronto has a Queen's Park--site of the Ontario Legislature, and a zoo. "X" is a bit challenging, but an acceptable stretch: the Canadian National Exhibition, which just about everyone in southern Ontario refers to as "the Ex". (I think we can forgive the "E"!) This might be a useful book for social studies.

This book is great for kids in so many ways. There is lots to talk about with youngsters, especially the colors which are the focus of this richly designed book.

However, one thing that especially jumped out at me for future use is the heavy outlines of the pictures. Those will be just perfect for tracing and then using the tracings from this book for coloring. I look forward to the day I will be able to do that with my granddaughter (as my four-year-old grandson pretty much nixes any arts and crafts project I propose).

A great primer for young hockey fans.

Summary: This book has very few words on each page but has beautiful illustrations showing the beauty of living in Canada.

Personal connection: I have never been to Canada, but feel like it is so beautiful after reading this book. I would love to go visit and see for myself.

Class use: Have students draw something, and write a small blurb about their home country or town.

First Hockey Words is a fun and simple book for young hockey lovers. Filled with the basic words you need to understand hockey and cute, bright pictures. A word is introduced and then used within a sentence in hockey context. Sure to enjoy young hockey fans everywhere!

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

A cute counting book featuring Canadian icons: 2 Polar bears playing, 6 Canoes, 7 Wolves etc. Very nice artwork as well.½

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book - or where one would catalog it. Each page names a winter sport, gives a brief action sentence, and shows a winter item, usually clothing, but sometimes a piece of equipment for the sport.

The introductory spread shows various animals getting dressed and the sports listed throughout the book are ice skating, sledge hockey, hockey, speed skating, curling, bobsleigh, skeleton (apparently a type of sledding), luge, downhill skiing, ski jumping, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing. The illustrations are thick and swirling, with lots of bright colors, featuring various anthropomorphic animals.

The thing is, while you can get a general idea of what the sport is about by looking at the pictures, if you're not familiar with these sports, it's really difficult to figure out what they're doing. Although I live in Wisconsin now, I grew up in Texas; as far as I can tell, they're all sliding down hills on various implements. I'm sure there's more to it than that, but...the accompanying text doesn't really help; for "freestyle skiing" the text is "Twist and flip through the air!" and the inset box shows ski poles. For "skeleton" (which I looked up online) the text is "Rocket along the curve--zoom!" and the inset box shows gloves.

Verdict: What I'm most doubtful about is the audience for this book. An older audience is going to want more facts and information about the various sports. But, as I said above, you really have to know something about these sports to figure out what's going on, and while younger kids may enjoy the animals and the action sentences, they're going to have difficulty figuring out what's happening. Perhaps it would be useful as an extra book for a unit on winter or winter sports for kindergarten or 1st grade?

ISBN: 978-1553373674; Published September 2009 by Kids Can Press; Review copy provided by the publisher through Raab Associates

This book provides young children an introduction to Canada. It covers the origin of the country’s name (Kanata), the national anthem of Canada, the two official languages of Canada (English and French), the two official colours of Canada (red and white), the flag of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories of Canada, and so on.

The book is very educative. It shows flags and symbols of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories and contains a map of Canada at the end. It can be useful for not only Canadian children but also children who come from other countries.

The large and colourful illustrations make the reading more enjoyable. There are animal characters that go on a cross-Canada tour. They feel the water spray at Niagara Falls. They help with harvest near Saskatoon. They hit the snowy slopes in Whistler. They hunt for fossils in Dinosaur Provincial Park. The book describes the characteristics of each province with cute illustrations.

This book is written for Kindergartenders, so it does not have lots of text. However, there are a few words that Kindergarteners may not be familiar with. The book could have been better if there were explanations for some difficult words.

I'm still not a fan of this series. I think the juxtaposition of everyday opposites (in/out, smiles/frowns) is confusing when paired with sports terms (defender/winger, home team/away team) and the blocky pictures don't make it clear what the sports terms mean. This, however, may well be because I simply don't understand how hockey works, other than that the main goal is to get the little black thing in the net. This one would probably be snatched up in an area where hockey is popular and by parents who are fans themselves and want to share their enthusiasm with their toddler.

Does anybody else use this series in storytime or with toddlers? How do they react to the concepts included?

Verdict: Optional, depending on your library area could be advisable.

ISBN: 978-1554532414; Published August 2010 by Kids Can Press; Review copy provided by the publisher through Raab Associates

Reaction: The brightly illustrated pages outlined in black are striking, giving the reader a new appreciation for Canada’s beauty from east to west. The national anthem, the map of Canada and the easy to access factual information about each province and territory make it a useful reference book for young readers