A Newfoundland Year. Dawn Baker. St. John’s, NL: Pennywell Books/Flanker Press, 2013. 32 pp., pbk. & pdf., $12.95 (pbk.). ISBN 978-1-77117-288-2 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-77117-178-6 (pdf). Preschool-grade 2 / Ages 4-7. Review by Jillian Sexton. *** /4

excerpt:

Bakeapples and berries of blue,
Raspberries and partridge berries too,
Is it jam or jelly,
You like in your belly?
Either way, we’ve got picking to do.

Newfoundland treasure Dawn Baker, locally revered for her paintings and illustrations, expands her canon of children’s literature with a book of watercolour and rhyme. A Newfoundland Year is a collection of 12 poems that correspond to life on The Rock throughout each month of the year. Baker begins by inviting the reader on a journey through a year in Newfoundland and proceeds to describe the 12 months through the lilting rhythm of limericks and serene brushstrokes.

     Given that Baker is both author and illustrator, her illustrations are a perfect complement to her rhymes. The landscape of each month in A Newfoundland Year is revealed through brightly coloured houses, textured foliage, and multi-dimensional water that captures the profound power of the Atlantic ocean and the draw to it that those who live on the Canadian East Coast feel.

      While the illustrations are beautiful and captivating, Baker’s limericks are not always on par. Some rhymes are eloquently written, with a smooth and clever A, A, B, B, A rhyming pattern; others are cumbersome on the tongue with too many syllables or words that do not comfortably complete the rhyming sound.

      Perhaps the book’s biggest detriment is the text design. The cover, “About the Author” page, and glossary (a wonderful addendum to the text, explaining terms such as “Regatta” and “Jiggs Dinner” to young readers) are typeset in clean, modern fonts; the poems are set in black Comic Sans, which, against the beautiful and dainty illustrations, looks heavy and unprofessional.

      As a Newfoundland expat, A Newfoundland Year brought me right back home to bonfires on the beach and berry picking in the early fall. The images are stunning, and the limericks are quaint. Surely this book offers a delightful little taste of a year at home on The Rock.

Recommended.

Jillian Sexton has a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Memorial University and is currently completing her MA in Communication at Carleton University in Ottawa, ON. You can read more from her on her blog: www.thebookbully.ca

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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