I've had the book, I KNOW HERE, written by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James and published by Groundwood Books in 2010, on my bookshelf for a while. We're in the midst of book awards time across this country right now and I recently received an email from the Canadian Children's Book Centre about the nominations for the 2015 TD Children's Literature Book Awards. One of the finalists, FROM THERE TO HERE, which is the sequel to I KNOW HERE, is a nominee for the Marilyn Baillie Award for Best Picture Book. So, this was a little reminder to revisit that book on my shelf which received an abundance of honourable mentions, has been a part of many best book lists and won numerous awards.
And deservedly...the book has such a poetic feel - the descriptive language, the movement in the words, the imagery, the repetition throughout. And in all of what the little girl knows of her HERE, the reader gains an understanding of how this family lives - what the climate and terrain and community and surroundings are like, and, what is important to this narrator.
“Once upon a northern night
while you lay sleeping,
wrapped in a downy blanket,
I painted you a picture.
It began with one tiny flake,
perfect
and beautiful
and special,
just like you.
Then there were two,
and then three.
Soon
the night sky filled with sparkling specks of white, crowding,
and floating,
tumbling down to the welcoming
ground
until the earth was
wrapped in a downy blanket, just like you.”
And so begins Once upon a northern night (Groundwood Books) by Jean E. Penziwol with illustrations by Isabelle Arsenault, a beautiful book which was listed as a Finalist for the 2014 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award.
