scholarly journals I Can Brush My Teeth by S. M. Johanson

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Trish Chatterley
Keyword(s):  
Oral Health ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
French Canadian ◽  
Accurate Representation ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Child Psychologists ◽  
Pediatric Dentist ◽  
Child Psychologist ◽  
The University

Johanson, Sarah Margaret. I Can Brush My Teeth. Montreal: Chouette Publishing, 2013. Print board book.For almost 25 years, preschoolers have been delighted by stories of four-year old Caillou. The French Canadian series was initiated by author Christine L’Heureux in an effort to illustrate everyday experiences in a child’s life and how to cope under various circumstances. Child psychologists have typically been consulted in the development of the stories and this book is no exception, drawing on the expertise of child psychologist Francine Nadeau. Pediatric dentist Dr. Hélène Buithieu was also consulted to ensure accurate representation of proper oral health practices.If the average toddler is anything like my three-year old niece, they will love this book! We read it six times over the course of a day. Caillou is growing up and wants to brush his teeth on his own without help from his parents. The story instructs the child to brush in little circles all around the mouth. While the story is a bit repetitive for an adult, this does not appear to be an issue with children and reinforces proper technique as recommended by dentists.Children familiar with the Caillou television program might question why the parents look quite different from the same characters as presented on the show. My niece also astutely observed, “Where’s Rosie?” since the two-year old sister does not make an appearance. The story is simple, the illustrations colourful, and will hopefully encourage children to have fun brushing their teeth by themselves. However, you may have to buy your child sparkly toothpaste so they can brush like Caillou!Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Trish ChatterleyTrish is a Public Services Librarian for the John W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta. In her free time she enjoys dancing, gardening, and reading books of all types.

scholarly journals Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories by I. Kaslik

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Publishing Company ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Traditional Technique ◽  
Internal Dialogue ◽  
The University

Kaslik, Ibi. Tales from the Tundra: A Collection of Inuit Stories. Illus. Anthony Brennan. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2010. Print. Inhabit Media is an Inuit-owned, independent publishing company that “aims to promote and preserve the stories, knowledge, and talent of northern Canada.”  This collection of five traditional Inuit stories from different regions in Nunavut is one of their most recent offerings.  Three of the stories tell of how specific animals came into being.  One tells how the raven and loon came to look the way they do and the fifth, The Owl and the Siksik, is a typical story of outwitting the enemy. Anthony Brennan’s illustrations have a two-dimensional fantasy quality to them that is more reminiscent of cartoons or Japanese anime than of traditional Inuit art.  Many of the creatures are outlined in black and then filled with solid colour.  While the backgrounds are usually ice-blue, and there are pastel colours in the images, many of the main parts of the drawings are black, giving the book an overall ominous look. While these stories are described in the forward as “contemporary retellings”, Kaslik’s voice is similar to that of an elder telling stories and her style is traditional.  The language is simple and direct, occasionally incorporating Inuit words.  Animals are anthropomorphized.  They do the same sorts of things that humans do and have human emotions and foibles.  For example, in “The Raven and The Loon”, the two birds sew clothes for each other.   When Raven thinks that Loon is sewing too slowly, she reacts impatiently: “Please, sew faster!” impatient Raven pleaded.” Kaslik also uses internal dialogue, another traditional technique, to allow the reader to listen to the characters reasoning out their actions. For example, “Siksiks often go in and out of their dens,” thought the owl, believing himself to be very clever.  “Today I will find a siksik den and wait there until I see one.” There are few children’s books of Inuit mythology available, and fewer that have the authenticity of being published by an Inuit publishing house.  Overall, this volume is a small, but welcome addition to the field, through which many children will be able to learn about the mythology of the Inuit.  For public and school libraries everywhere. Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

At the Heart of It: Dene dzó t’áré by R. Taniton & M. Willett

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Book Series ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Bear Lake ◽  
The People ◽  
The University

Taniton, Raymond and Mindy Willett.  At the Heart of It: Dene dzó t’áré.  Markham, On:  Fifth   House, 2011.  Print. Indigenous author Raymond Taniton is a member of The Sahtugot’ine, or the “people of Great Bear Lake”.  In At the Heart of It, Taniton invites readers into his world.  We meet his family, see the Sahtu Region where he lives, meet the elders in the community, learn how to make a traditional hand drum, learn some games and read some of the stories.  The stories are particularly important. This book is the most recent in Fifth House’s “The Land is Our Story Book” series, all co-authored by writer Mindy Willett. Taniton concludes this volume by saying, “The land is our storybook. It is our school, our library, our church. It is where we learn our stories and where we discover who we are as true Dene people. The land is at the heart of it all”.  And in this book Taniton and Willett do succeed in helping us to understand “the land”. This is a picture book, an educational book and a celebration of what it means to be Satugot’ine. Tessa Macintosh’s photographs are used throughout. The top of each page has a border image of the beaded toes of twenty-one moccasins. Often a large image will form the background of a page with text and other images superimposed.  For example, for the story “The Lake is the Boss”, the background is an image which looks out through the mouth of a cave.  The story is about a giant wolf that lived in the cave. The text, along with smaller images of the island that the wolf became when he turned to stone, is superimposed on the cave photograph.  The images and text, taken together, form many lessons for young people.  The stories provide metaphorical and philosophical lessons, but the book also provides practical lessons, such as the illustrated steps to making a drum.  As a whole, the book celebrates Raymond Taniton’s family, the Sahtugot’ine people and their way of life.   Highly recommended for elementary school and public libraries. Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Mingan: my village

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Writing Workshop ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Art Collections ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
The World ◽  
The University ◽  
The Village

Mingan:  my village. Illus. Rogé. Trans. Solange Messier.  Markham, ON:  Fifth House Publishers, 2014.  Print.This is one of the most unusual Canadian Indigenous children’s books to have been published recently.  It is an art book composed of fifteen of illustrator Rogé's portraits of Innu children from the village of Mingan (“Ekuantshit” in the Innu-aimun language) on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  The images are accompanied by fifteen poems written by the children.  Each of the portraits covers an 8.5 X 14’ page and is an almost life-sized likeness painted from a photograph.  The images are mainly sepia tones with some orange, blue and red highlights.  These portraits will allow children elsewhere in the world to see what an Innu child looks like. The poems are the result of a poetry writing workshop led by Laurel Morali and Rita Mestokosho at Mingan.  They are also published in the back of the book in Innu-aimun.  The works are simple, unsophisticated and present a child’s view of the world.  Nature and grandparents figure prominently in the works.   For example:                        In the wind's light, the pain of the heart                        The blue river                        When I listen                        I have a memory of my grandfather                        He tells me he is well                        This comforts me                        I know he protects me                        That he watches me                        I cry when he is not beside me                                                                       Sabrina                       Overall this is a striking work that could fit both in to art collections and children’s libraries as well as those collecting Canadian Indigenous materials. Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story by A. Weiner

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Fishing Trip ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Fly Fishing ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The University ◽  
Riverine Landscapes

Weiner, Andrew.  Down by the River: A Family Fly Fishing Story. Harry N. Abrams, 2018.  This is a beautifully illustrated book that tells a simple story about a boy, Art, who goes on a fly-fishing trip with his mother and grandfather. The story recalls a time when Art’s grandfather taught his mother to fish.  April Chu has used a subdued palette for her two-page riverine landscapes, with lots of green and rich autumn colours in the environment. The book has a calm and peaceful feel about it that mirrors the contemplative nature of fly-fishing.  The text is simple and descriptive of a day spent on the river. The reading level is too difficult for the intended Kindergarten to Grade 2 audience, so an adult will need to read the book aloud, especially those sentences that could confuse young readers with difficult concepts or complicated jargon: “The line arced forward and the fly landed softly a few feet above the rock. It drifted with the current past the rock. There was a splash and the line went tight.”  The last three pages contain information about fly fishing, the clothing worn by fly fishers and where to get more information about the sport. The end pages are decorated with images of intricate flys with such fun and mysterious names as: “Ian’s Crunch Caddis,” “Black Fur Ant,” and “Purple Parachute Adams.” This book is a good introduction to fly fishing for younger children that also tells a charming story. Highly recommended for school and public libraries. Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Reviewer:  Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals Lesson for the Wolf by R. & S. Qitsualik-Tinsley

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Face Length ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
The University

Qitsualik-Tinsley, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley.  Lesson for the Wolf.  Illus. Alan Cook. Iqaluit, NU:  Inhabit Media, 2015. Print.The writing duo of Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley are back with a story about being comfortable in your own skin, literally.  The wolf in this story is not happy to be a wolf, so with the help of “the magic of the land”, he acquires owl’s feathers, the wolverine’s tail and the caribou’s antlers.  But he cannot fly like the owl or eat lichen like the caribou and he is too different from the wolves, so he becomes sad, lonely and starves.  Eventually he learns the beauty of being himself and the magic of the land restores him.  The story is a lovely Arctic fable on the lesson of being true to one’s self. Alan Cook’s paintings capture the wildness of the Arctic, with sweeping brush-strokes and suggestions of distant landscapes.  The animals are all cartoon-like creatures, sometimes verging on caricature.  Both the wolves and the caribou are drawn with over-accentuated face length and extreme thinness of the abdomen. Children who are struggling to be satisfied with and confident in their identities may be able to identify with the wolf.  This book would be a good starting point for discussion.  Highly recommended for elementary school libraries and public libraries.Highly recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals The Good Little Book by K. Maclear

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Public Library ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The Public ◽  
Child Psychologists ◽  
Clear Vision ◽  
Intended Reader ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
The University

Maclear, Kyo.  The Good Little Book. Illustrated by Marion Arbona.  Tundra Books, 2015.In this work, Maclear uses allegorical techniques to expand on compelling themes.  Her protagonist is unnamed; he is “the boy,” every boy who loves to read.  The Good Little Book is every book that captivates a reader.  Its author is unnamed.   Its characters are not delineated.  Only a captioned illustration, one of Arbona’s many colorful offerings, provides clues to the book’s plot and impact:“It carried him to the deep sea and steered him towards a faraway land. It dazzled him and stumped him and made him laugh and gasp.  He read it through.  Then he turned back to the beginning and read it again.”[pp.11-12]Humour is a feature of the work; Maclear likes to play with words--literary words. The Good Little Book resides with others, one of which has won the “Called a Cat” medal.  We are informed, however, that “The good little book…had no shiny medals…it didn’t even own a proper jacket.” [p.3]The protagonist’s compulsion to read and reread his good little book introduces the first theme: books transport us to imagined worlds.  When the book is lost, then rediscovered, a secondary theme emerges: books are to be shared.Text and illustration lead the reader to surmise that “the boy” is school-aged, a child physically mature enough to walk his dog while riding a skateboard.  He is, of course, an avid and independent reader.  Tormented by the loss of his book, he is old enough to hunt for it on his own, to scour crowded and heavily trafficked streets, to search the public library.  Initially, he appears to have an age appropriate appreciation of the book’s capacity to occupy his mind, to move his thoughts.“The book the boy thought couldn’t do anything did many things.” [p.11] “It did become a loyal companion, there to see him to sleep and distract him when he had to “think things over.””[p.13].To this point, the boy’s relationship with the book seems in keeping with the primary theme: book as intellectual transport.  Suddenly, his thought processes revert to those of a much younger child.“The boy worried. How would such a good and quiet book survive?  What would it do if it found itself at the edge of the unknown? Or among frightful enemies?...the book did not have skills that would help it in the dangerous wild….”[pp.19-20 ]The story becomes even more anthropomorphic when the book is discovered by various creatures:“A squirrel thought it might be a thriller.  A sparrow thought it might be a romance.  A raccoon thought it might be a sandwich.” [p.29 ]These developments raise a question: “Who is the intended reader?”  A child who has completed grade three would generally have both the ability and the maturity to read the book and to appreciate its messages.  This reader might, initially, identify with the protagonist’s dilemma. But would this same youngster identify with thinking that becomes, in the lexicon of child psychologists, animistic?  One can readily imagine a nine-year-old reader’s sudden dismissal of the work as, “…a little kid’s book.” One can also imagine that a preschooler would listen with rapt attention to the anthropomorphic sections, but zone out during the development of the book’s themes. Finally, it may be that only librarians, booksellers, and children’s literature specialists would appreciate the humour.  In sum, maintaining a clear vision of the intended reader or listener is a requisite in any kind of storytelling; The Good Little Book falls short in this regard.Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer:  Leslie AitkenLeslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special, and university collections.  She is a former Curriculum Librarian at the University of Alberta.

scholarly journals The Great Sheep Shenanigans by P. Bently

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
School Libraries ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Intended Audience ◽  
Small Children ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
The University

Bently, Peter.  The Great Sheep Shenanigans.  Illus. M. Matsuoka. London:  Andersen Press, 2011. Print. In this tale, it is really the wolf, Lou Pine (hear the French loup and Lupin, the werewolf from Harry Potter), who gets up to shenanigans, rather than the sheep.  The text is a clever and funny rhyme that tells the story of the wolf trying to catch a lamb to eat.  Along the way, we hear sheep-related cultural and literary references from, “the wolf in sheep’s clothing,” to Red Riding Hood. “I’m just in the mood for a Gran-flavoured snack,” the wolf tells us. The wolf makes many attempts to catch a lamb, but is always thwarted, if not by his own silliness, then by the water-gun toting Ma Watson, by bees, by Red Riding Hood’s Granny, and finally, by Rambo the Ram, who butts him into “a big pile of poo!”  While the intended audience is pre-school, the author sprinkles in some big words, such as “derrière”, “kersplat”, “skedaddling” and “vindaloo”, that children will enjoy and repeat, but adults will need to explain and pronounce on the first reading. The text is often printed over the illustrations, sometimes in extra-large font to emphasize a point.  Sometimes it is part of the illustration.  When “Lou found a thicket of blossoming trees,” the words from the phrase “Down came the blossom” float down the page with the blossoms.  The illustrations are as much fun as the text. The sheep are most often depicted as balls of white with heads, ears and four small pegs for legs.  Lou Pine is a two-dimensional creature, while Rambo the Ram blows steam out his nose and wears boxing gloves. The sheep occasionally have glasses, bow-ties or hair-bows. Because the rhyme is jaunty and the illustrations are fun and inventive, this will be a book that small children will want to have read to them over and over.  Highly recommended for public and elementary school libraries. Recommendation:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals Siuluk: The Last Tuniq by N. Sammurtok

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Inuit People ◽  
The University

Sammurtok, Nadia. Siuluk: The Last Tuniq. Illustrated by Rob Nix. Inhabit Media, 2018.This picture book, published in both English and Inuktitut syllabic script, tells the story of the last of the Tuniit, or the giants of the Eastern Arctic. The story is connected to a large rock, near Chesterfied Inlet in Nunavut, which is called Siuluk’s Rock. Nadia Sammurtok who is from Rankin Inlet and heard the story from her father, recounts that people were unkind to Siuluk and teased him because he was different. Through a show of strength by lifting the very large rock, Siuluk convinced the Inuit people that he really was the strongest man and gained their respect.Both the language and the artwork in the book are simple. The clothing pictured is unadorned. Vegetation is suggested, but not detailed. Rob Nix has taken some liberties with the appearance of the individuals. Artwork left by the Tuniit (also known as the Dorset Culture), typically show rounded faces, similar to modern Inuit. Siuluk’s face is depicted as long and angular, with a prominent and high-bridged, convex nose, more common in some European people.Overall this is a good retelling of the traditional story and conveys the message of tolerance of difference. Libraries with children’s collections, and particularly those that collect polar children’s literature will want to include these volumes. Recommendation: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

scholarly journals The Walrus Who Escaped by R. & S. Qitsualik-Tinsley

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Human Emotions ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

Qitsualik-Tinsley, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley.  The Walrus Who Escaped. Illus. Anthony Brennan.  Iqualuit, NU:  Inhabit Media Inc., 2014. Print.In this book, Rachael and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley retell another of the many Inuit legends that explain why things are the way they are.   According to this story, walruses used to have spiral tusks.  Raven, who is always a bit of a trouble maker and looking for a free meal, imprisons the walrus in ice because she wants his clams.  Imprisoning the walrus doesn’t get the raven any clams, but when the walrus gets free, the force straightens his tusks.The most interesting theme in this story is that of the “Strength in the Land”, which the authors explain variously as something that would be ill-described as “magic” and could be thought of as a “special kind of dream”.  Even in today’s Inuit culture, land strength is an important concept that is implied in many works, but is rarely directly addressed.  Qitsualik-Tinsleys deserve kudos for attempting to capture it in a children’s book.The text is overprinted on Anthony Brennan’s cartoon-like images which show the animals demonstrating human emotions such as contentment, frustration, anger and fear.  The colours are generally bright, with the light blues of the sea and the ice predominating. Highly recommended for public libraries, elementary education libraries and libraries that collect Canadian Indigenous Children’s works.Highly Recommended:  4 stars out of 4Reviewer:  Sandy CampbellSandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines.  Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give. 

scholarly journals A Little Book About Feelings by A. Schiller

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Desmeules
Keyword(s):  
Social And Emotional Learning ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Emotional Learning ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Children And Parents ◽  
Academic Librarian ◽  
The University

Schiller, Abbie. A Little Book About Feelings. California: The Mother Company, 2013. Print.A Little Book About Feelings is a product of Ruby’s Studio, a video and print series designed to educate children and parents with respect to social and emotional learning. Adapted from the video “Ruby’s Studio: The Feelings Show,” the purpose of this book is to educate children on how to understand and communicate their feelings. The Ruby Studio is produced by The Mother Company, which is a mom-run American-based company dedicated to providing resources for parents who seek to offer their children educational entertainment.With simple text and beautiful stills of handcrafted caricatures from the program as illustrations, this book is most useful for younger children. It begins by explaining what feelings are, then describes how some feelings may feel, as well as how feelings change. The story also deals with the importance of expressing your feelings as well as listening to them.Overall, this book is a helpful resource for children and parents. With bright illustrations and simple text, this book serves as an informative and entertaining resource on feelings for children.Highly recommended:  4 out of 4 stars.Reviewer: Robin DesmeulesRobin is an Academic Librarian Intern at the J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta.  Robin is an avid devourer of fiction of all kinds.

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