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CM . . .
. Volume XII Number 20 . . . .June 9, 2006
excerpt:
For over 30 years, Canadian children have delighted in the rhythmical, whimsical poetry of one of Canada’s best-loved writers, Dennis Lee, who is the recipient of many awards. His body of work was recognized through nomination for the internationally prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award for a lasting contribution to literature for children. Lee’s playful approach to words serves as an ideal tool for developing and expanding children’s language use. An innovative series of four board books from Key Porter Books now brings Dennis Lee’s popular poetry to an additional, younger audience. The well-known poem, “Alligator Pie,” spawns the title for this series, published as “Alligator Tales.” Five poems are presented, with Nora Hilb providing brand new illustrations for all four books.
Highly Recommended. Gregory Bryan teaches language and literacy courses in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.
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The appropriateness of Hilb’s artwork for the younger audience is perhaps best borne out when comparing Hilb’s illustrations for The Dreadful Doings of Jelly Belly against those of Juan Wijngaard’s illustrations for the original, 1983, presentation of the poem. Wijngaard interpreted Jelly Belly as a grossly obese grown man. Wijngaard’s portrayal is far more terrible and sinister. Hilb, on the other hand, portrays Jelly Belly as an enormous baby with a single tuft of grass-green hair. Neither terrible nor sinister, there is something alluring about a baby too chubby for its clothes to contain a big round belly.
In that same, 1983, Jelly Belly collection of poems, Wijngaard illustrated the poems, “Good Night, Good Night” and “Silverly.” There is little disputing that the Wijngaard works are more classical illustrations than appear in the new “Alligator Tales” series. Given the preschool audience, however, Hilb’s simple, yet bright and colourful illustrations seem perfectly appropriate.
The “Alligator Pie” poem was first published in the 1974 collection of poems also entitled, Alligator Pie. That same collection of poems contained my favourite Dennis Lee poem, “Willoughby Wallaby Woo.” Frank Newfeld illustrated the 1974 collection. By comparison, in the new Alligator Pie and Willoughby Wallaby Woo books, Hilb provides far more colour than her predecessor did. For instance, Newfeld’s single illustration for the “Alligator Pie” poem contains only green shading of a black line drawing. Newfeld’s single illustration for “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” contains only an off-yellow colour and blue shading. By contrast, Hilb seeks to include all the colours of the rainbow and many more besides.
As a matter of personal preference, more so than anything else, I rate Willoughby Wallaby Woo more highly than the other books. The poem is an enchanting example of playing with words, and the illustrations are similarly imaginative and playful. On the final double page spread of Willoughby Wallaby Woo, I was delighted to see the inclusion of directions for extending the poem to enhance further a young reader’s enjoyment of the book, including Lee’s admonition to remember that, “of course, no rhyme is ever wrong.”