Missuk's Snow Geese by Anne Renaud illustrated by Geneviève Côté

Litte Missuk lives in the far north of Canada. Her father carves soap stone pieces into animals and Missuk longs to learn how to do this but for now she will have to wait because her father needs to set off hunting for caribou. Missuk fills in her day sewing new mittens with her mother and then trying a little carving project but she is so restless. Outside the air is warm but the land is covered in snow. The sky is vast and lying on her back in the snow she sees a flock of migrating snow geese. Missuk makes up a game of lying in the snow and leaving bird-shaped imprints along the trail taken by her father that morning.

Late in the day and into the evening her father does not return. Missuk goes to bed and while she does sleep her dreams become nightmares as her imagination wonders if her father has had an accident or if the husky dogs are trapped in broken ice. Eventually her father does return. He is cold and very tired but once he recovers he explains how he did become lost in a snow storm but close to home he found something special.

"I would have been lost had I not come upon a trail of goose shapes stamped into the snow. Those birds led me across the tundra and up to a hilltop from where I saw our igloo. This is how I found my way home."

Missuk's Snow Goose was published in 2008 so sadly it is out of print but I was pleased to see it was featured in our NSW School magazine in 2019. I picked up this book because I like the illustrations by Geneviève Côté. Here is an interview with Seven impossible Things.

Côté’s watercolor-wash and charcoal pictures warmly illuminate the family’s emotional connection against a harshly beautiful landscape that teems with wildlife. Kirkus

I previously talked about Ella May and the Wishing Stone by Cary Fagan illustrated by Genevieve Cote.

This week IBBY Canada released a wonderful list of Indigenous Picture Books. We are so lucky here in Australia that we speak English and so we can enjoy books from Canada.

Take a look at the three lists - 2018, 2021 and 2023. If you are in Australia you might like to hunt out books illustrated by Julie Flett, Qin Leng, and Soyeon Kim.

When I worked in Canada in 1994 one of my projects was to collect one picture book from each province. I almost completed this task. Here are some of the books I bought home. I have given a few away over the years so there are a few titles I have forgotten (sadly):

If You're Not from the Prairie by David Bouchard illustrated by Henry Ripplinger

Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades

Belle's Journey by Marilyn Reynolds illustrated by Stephen McCallum

Last Leaf First Snowflake to fall by Leo Yerza

Oh, Canada by Ted Harrison

Baseball bats for Christmas by Michael Kusugak illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka

A horse called Farmer by Peter Cumming illustrated by P. John Burden

The Mummers Song by Bud Davidge illustrated by Ian Wallace

A Prairie Alphabet by Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet illustrated by Yvette Moore Montréal

The Time Traveller and the Tiger by Tania Unsworth

Elsie is sent to stay with her Uncle John. Her mother is busy with work. In one of her uncle's upstairs rooms she sees a huge tiger skin rug. 

"Did that tiger come from India?' Elsie's mother had told her that John had lived in India when he was a boy, when the country was still ruled by the British ... He nodded. 'It did, yes.' Elsie thought of the tiger's roaring mouth. It was meant to be frightening, yet it just looked strange and sad. 'Why do you keep it in that room?"

"I have to keep it because I was the one who killed it,' he said at last. 'I shot it when I was twelve years old.' Elsie stared at him. 'It was the worst thing I ever did,' Uncle John said."

Can events of the past be changed? Elsie wanders into Uncle Johns garden late at night and finds herself transported to India. The year is 1946. The tiger has not yet been killed. 

There are a couple of problems with having a character go back in time. Altering history for one event, such as the hunting of the tiger, surely will have ramifications for other future events. And there is the problem of bringing the character back to the present.

Both of these issues are handled really well by Tania Unsworth. I recommend The Time Traveller and the Tiger for readers aged 10+. I especially enjoyed the way the relationship between John and Elsie grows and changes; the chapters told from the point of view of the tiger; and the vivid jungle scenes.

The resolutions for all characters, and for the tiger, are very satisfying and make this a title to recommend to readers who will enjoy a mix of adventure, fantasy, and conservation. Books for Keeps

... this is an atmospheric adventure story with a strong message about the importance of conservation. The writing is sophisticated and memorable and will keep older readers thoroughly engaged. Book Trust

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

Memorable, controversial, wonderful.

Elizabeth Bird SLJ Fuse 8

It's beautiful. It's simply beautiful. Like a love letter to the English language. Appelt's poetic style suits this prose novel achingly well. Becky's Book Reviews

I am not going to retell the plot of this book. If you click the review links above you can read them for yourself.  Instead here are my random thoughts about this book - a book I loved reading.

This book made me think of a series of threads which might begin as separate strands. Gradually a skilled person joins them together in a pattern. One thread, however, is short and disappears into the design very early. Another thread is totally wrong. It is the wrong texture, wrong colour and feels rough and damaged. It cannot be part of the pattern and yet it is now tangled and will be difficult to remove from the final design. One thread also feels wrong but by the time this weaving it finished the maker sees that it is just perfect adding an important dimension to the whole effect.

"The world is made of patterns. The rings of a tree. The raindrops on the dusty ground. The path the sun follows morning to dusk." (Chapter 65)

When you read this book I hope my thread analogy makes sense. To start you off the Calico Cat is the short thread.

Major Characters:
Calico Cat - her life is short but she is essential to the rescue of Ranger
Her twin kittens Sabine and the aptly named Puck
An old hound dog called Ranger
The man named Gar Face whose life is fueled by revenge and hate. "Hatred, like sweat, coated his skin. ... Do not cross his angry path. Do not."
Grandmother Moccasin the old snake trapped for a thousand years "a creature even older than the forest itself, older than the creek, the last of her kind."
The Alligator King - he is patiently waiting for the man to make a mistake.

I adore all the references to trees in this book. "Trees are the keepers of stories." Here are some which I love the sound of. Coming from Australia nearly all are unfamiliar to me. As Elizabeth Bird says through this beautiful writing:

"We hear the wind in the pines and the smell of the water."

Loblolly Pine
Tupelo
Blackjacks
Water Oaks
Sumacs
Longleaf Pine
Weeping Willow
Mulberry
Ash
Sugarberry
Juniper
Maple
Beautyberry
Chestnut

Kathi Appelt is also so skilled with her words on the actions of cats.
Sabine sees her brother step into the sun.  "She had awakened just in time to see her brother step into the sun's dim light, see him roll onto his back, see the beams of sun float onto his tummy. She had seen him smile up at the lovely light, seen his coat glow in the shimmery gold."

Puck is given a freshly killed mouse by the hawk. "Even though the mouse was already dead, he decided to kill it again, just to make sure. So he fluffed up his fur as much as he could ... arched his back to its full kitten height, and pounced on the lifeless body with all four paws. He battered it from side to side and tossed it into the air."

Sabine : "Soon she was completely absorbed in her personal bath, concentrating fully on licking every strand of her silver fur. She cleaned her paws, including between her toes. She reached over and licked her narrow back. She tucked her head and cleaned her soft-as-velvet belly. And every few minutes, she stopped and licked Ranger's long ears. He loved it when she did that."

One aspect of this book that I really enjoyed was all the tension Kathi Appelt created. I knew it would all be resolved and I could hardly wait to find out how.  One tiny example is when Puck finds himself on the wrong side of the river. His fur is coated with mud which hardens in the sun. Finally after many adventures Puck falls into the river. He can swim. He is okay. He sadly finds he is still on the wrong side of the river. "The only good thing to come out of his experiment in sailing was this: The cold water had loosened the last of the old mud, and his coat, though completely wet, was now completely clean."

I volunteer in a small library at a city Children's Hospital and last week I discovered I am allowed to borrow their books. I spied The Underneath by Kathi Appelt and I remembered reading her book Keeper. I am late in my discovery of The Underneath. It was first published in 2008 and won a Newbery Honor but I am very happy to report it is still available. One important point - make sure you read this book yourself first before giving to a young reader. As you can see from my set of labels it is violent and some scenes with Gar Face and his treatment of Ranger and the kittens are extremely cruel. I would suggest this book is for readers aged 10+. You can listen to part of Chapter one here.  Read this review for more story details and a different perspective. Here is the trailer.

Here is a very detailed review by Middle Grade Ninja. I was interested to read the way his review likens the story line to juggling plates. Here is an excellent interview by Uma Krishnaswami author of The Book Uncle and me.

The Underneath, as I said, is a violent story but it is also a love story and a story about loyalty, perseverance and promises. I would follow or pair this with Sounder by William H Armstrong, Shiloh by Phyllis Naylor Reynolds, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and for a book with a similar setting look for Chomp by Carl Hiaasen or Skink no surrender also by Carl Hiaasen. The evil of Gar Face reminded me of Zozo from Ollie's Odyssey.

Here is one more beautiful phrase from this book:
"And then, as if the lightning were a zipper in the clouds, it opened them up and let the water out. Buckets and buckets of cold rain, sheets of it. Rain that had traveled for thousands of miles."

Tacky the penguin by Helen Lester illustrated by Lynn Munsinger

Have you met this cute penguin?  His name is Tacky.  He is very different from his companions but this difference is something to be celebrated.  "Tacky was a odd bird but a very nice bird to have around."

In this first installment the hunters arrive.  They are determined to catch some pretty penguins but they are greeted by the unconventional Tacky.  He drives them away with his awful singing - "How many toes does a fish have and how many wings on a cow?" and his huge splashy cannonball dives.

At the beginning of each year I love to introduce Tacky to my Grade One students.  Luckily for me there are ten titles in this series including a new one I have just discovered Tacky and the Haunted Igloo.

You can find a list of all the books Helen Lester here and if you hover over the title you can see a cover image.

You can buy an interactive version of Tacky the Penguin for use on your device. It is very well done and we use it with our classes.  Here is a play of the story and some penguin poems. Here are some teacher notes.  I also have a few craft and teaching ideas for this book series in my Pinterest collection.  You could follow the reading of Tacky the Penguin with Elmer on Stilts which also looks at ingenious ways to foil animal hunters.

This is my last post for 2015 - see you again in 2016 and Happy New Year!