The Little Red Shed

The Little Red Shed, from Newfoundland publisher Breakwater Books, is a short picture book about the value of diversity.

One sunny day, a young little shed,

Who once was white had now turned red.

The other sheds thought that this was wrong.

They all looked the same, and she didn’t belong.

(In Newfoundland, a shed is not just any small building but a particular type of frame structure traditionally built near the water as shelter for fishermen. The ones in the book are all shown perched on stilts at interesting angles.)

Little Red Shed feels sad, so she sets out to sea on a small boat, the Ocean Queen, seeking anonymity away from her censorious fellows. After travelling for some time, she encounters a breaching humpback whale. The whale compliments her on her colour:

“What a wonderfully, beautiful colourful shed.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Little Red.”

“Do you really think I’m beautiful?

My friends think I’m strange.”

“Well, nothing would be beautiful if

we all looked the same.”

Little Red, encouraged by the whale’s remarks, heads home, proudly declaiming for all to hear that she now really loves her colour. Her confidence spurs the other sheds, which had all been the same pale tone, to shake off their boring white siding in favour of new tints of pink and green and blue.

What was once a bundle, without colour or hue,

was now a RAINBOW, vibrant and true.

The illustrations are simple and bold, executed with rich colour and strong line by popular Maritime artist Adam Young. There is a real feeling of the east coast in the moods of the waves and the glimpses of the misty shoreline. Young is the co-owner of Young Studios on Fogo Island and here has collaborated with wife Jennifer Young who has contributed the rhyming text.

The heartfelt message about being happy in oneself is muddied by a few puzzling elements: Why did the little shed suddenly turn red? How can she say that the change will mean “no one will recognize me” when clearly her problem is that the other sheds are noticing and criticizing the new difference? And is a group of sheds really a ‘bundle’? A somewhat threadbare concept is jazzed up for the new age with its nod to the ‘rainbow connection’. The vibrant pictures work valiantly to shore up the uneasy lines of verse without being completely successful.

Not a necessary purchase for most school or public library collections.