Contemporary Canadian Picture Books: A Critical Review for Educators, Librarians, Families, Researchers & Writers

In collaborating to produce Contemporary Canadian Picture Books, Beverley Brenna, Richard Dionne, and Theresa Tavares have provided an excellent service to the many people associated with and interested in Canadian children’s literature. The book provides an overview of more than 200 picture books produced by Canadian publishing houses between 2017–2019. An unfortunate reality is that even good picture books come and go, quickly falling out of print even if their quality demands they remain available for generations. Thus, a book such as Contemporary Canadian Picture Books provides an invaluable, up-to-date resource for teachers, librarians, children’s literature academics, and parents. Because of the recency of the books included within the cover of Brenna, Dionne, and Tavares’ work, they should all be accessible.

Contemporary Canadian Picture Books consists of over 200 pages and includes 13 chapters. As an indicator of the content of Brenna, Dionne, and Tavares’ book, amongst others the chapter titles include Traditional Tales and Modernised Folk Literature, Dual Language Books, Our Living Earth, Newcomer Experiences, Teachable Moments, and Author and Illustrator Spotlight.

Many of the picture books featured in Contemporary Canadian Picture Books are presented with an accompanying colour reproduction of the picture book’s cover. The books appear with a succinct one-paragraph overview of the book content. The paragraph descriptions typically consist of three or four sentences and end with a suggested age level designation. Although Contemporary Canadian Picture Books focusses on books released from 2017–2019, Chapter 12 contains an overview of 39 “Canadian classics new and old.” Amongst the classics, one can find books such as Leo Yerxa’s artistically stunning Ancient Thunder (2006), Phoebe Gilman’s delightful Jillian Jiggs (1985), Robert Munsch’s wildly popular The Paper Bag Princess (1980), and the iconic The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier (1984). Unlike the picture books featured in other chapters, the original publication date for these “classic” books is identified. Even though the other books were published in the narrow window between 2017 and 2019, I would still have preferred the publication date was included for them. The “classic” books in Chapter 12 are not accompanied by the age level designation. Brenna, Dionne, and Tavares explain:

While we have given suggestions about audience age regarding the books summarised in earlier chapters, we open the titles in this chapter to wider considerations because of their ability to stand the test of time, and/or the innovations they present to the picture book field. For this reason, we have not included an age range for the titles summarised in this section. (p. 151)

I am always wary of age designations in any case, and so I am comfortable with their omission in this chapter. Generally speaking, I tend to believe that any book can be used with any age. What matters is the purpose for which it is being used and in what manner it is being used to satisfy that purpose.

The Teachable Moments chapter (Chapter 11) will be particularly useful for teachers but others, certainly including parents, will also benefit from the contents of the chapter. That chapter includes several pages of advice for sharing picture books with young children. I particularly appreciate the tone of the chapter reflected in the following sentiment:

Families who read together, and talk about books, in a warm, fun environment, are building many skills that underpin the independent reading and writing tasks that children grow into. Classrooms, libraries and homes that offer shared reading opportunities are rich settings in which children’s literacy development can flourish. (p. 122)

The book overviews in this chapter contain brief suggestions for post-reading activities. For instance, after a description of the book, If a Horse Had Words, the book is said to offer “a great opportunity for young writers to create their own words lists pertinent to other animals” (p. 138). After the description of the book, Blue Rider, it says, “Audiences can talk about the therapeutic power of art” (p. 147). The description of Harry’s Hiccups is followed by the suggestion, “Children could interview others to discover various ways to get rid of hiccups, and then dramatise their favourites” (p. 135).

As a children’s literature “fan” and as a children’s literature academic, the content I found most interesting was the original interviews with what are described on the back cover blurb as “a dozen rising stars in Canadian writing and book illustration.” These interviews will be of interest to many adults, but this content might also be something children will enjoy hearing about too. It is a special accomplishment to have a book published, but, at the end of the day, writers and illustrators are just people. While the audience for Contemporary Canadian Picture Books is not the young, children will be fascinated to hear the authors and illustrators of their favourite books talk about their lives and their books through these interviews.

Because Contemporary Canadian Picture Books is focussed only upon books produced by Canadian publishing houses, there were necessarily some unfortunate omissions from among the best of Canadian children’s picture books. As is acknowledged in the epilogue, masterful works by the likes of the Fan Brothers, Jon Klassen, George Littlechild, and others were not included. Although these authors and illustrators live and work in Canada, their 2017–2019 works were produced with companies in other countries, and so the material fell outside the scope of this book.

Formerly an elementary school teacher, in addition to publishing books for children, Beverley Brenna is a professor in curriculum studies at the University of Saskatchewan. Richard Dionne has been an editor and publisher in the Canadian book publishing business for over twenty years. Theresa Tavares is a graduate student with a professional background in publishing, working for years with children’s literature and young adult literature in Brazil. The diverse skills and experiences of this talented team have resulted in a most valuable book. They close with the words, “We hope our work has interested, challenged, and amazed you, and supported more Canadian picture books than ever before in reaching the hands of readers … where they belong!” (p. 205). The passion with which Brenna, Dionne, and Tavares have approached their work is obvious. They are to be commended on their achievement.