A year ago this January, well known and beloved Canadian poet P.K. Page died.   She was 93.  In the latter part of her career, Page wrote some children’s books, and in particular a poem called “A Grain of Sand” (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2003) that was illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka.  A Grain of Sand is a very short book, based on the famous lines of poet William Blake — “To See a World in a Grain of Sand/And Heaven in a Wild Flower.”   It was written at the request of Derek Holman for his oratario, An Invisible Reality.

The book is very simple with lush illustrations expressing what it is to be filled with wonder and awe as a child, and how one’s imagination “Can see in a daisy in the grass/Angels and archangels pass”  or “See outer space become so small/That the hand of a child could hold it all.”    I’m not surprised at all that Page was requested to write this book as she is a poet most fond of the mystical paradoxes of life, some of which are hard to grasp for children.  My daughter, for one, found this book perplexing;  however, I enjoyed exposing her to it nonetheless — call it paradoxical parenting!  That some things indeed, are a mystery is part of this book’s appeal.

For more on P.K. Page, you might want to check out the Canadian literary journal The Malahat Review‘s P.K. Page: A Tribute , but I do also recommend her books.  The Glass Air was one of my favorites in my undergraduate years.

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Elaine at Wild Rose Reader.

In our current issue of PaperTigers, which focuses on Canadian Aboriginal Children’s Literature, we feature the reprint of an article by Nadine C. Fabbi, Associate Director of the Canadian Studies Center in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington, in which she has put together a set of picture books to introduce children to Inuit culture and Northern/Nunavut history:

Elementary school teachers and librarians can successfully introduce children to Inuit culture and Northern/Nunavut history by having them read the ten selected books in this article and then enhancing these stories with additional curriculum and lesson plans. Children’s literature from the North is relatively recent with all but one of the suggested books being published in the 1990s or since 2000. All of the books are excellent in terms of quality (several are awards winners) and engaging for the young reader with beautiful illustrations. Each book also serves as an introduction to Inuit mythology, the history of the Northwest Passage and missionary schools, the importance of the inukshuk, and the vital place of the polar bear in Inuit culture. The entire “selection” makes for an excellent library of the Canadian North for children.

You can read the whole article here. The set includes our current selection for The Tiger’s Bookshelf, Arctic Stories by Michael Kusugak and illustrated by Vladyana Langer Krykorka (Annick, 1998); and I was particularly struck by what Nadine writes about the importance of the polar bear in Inuit culture:

Another key part of Inuit life is the role of the polar bear both for survival and in terms of the special attributes given to the animal. Children love to learn about animals and the polar bear is (more…)

Winter’s not quite over yet where I live even though it’s March, so I thought I’d squeak in one more book about the cold!  Arctic Stories by Michael Kusugak and illustrated by Vladyana Langer Krykorka (Annick, 1998) is about life in the very far north.  The stories feature an Inuit girl, Agatha, and her adventures  way up in the environs of Repulse Bay. The three stories reflect the experience of author Kusugak as made clear in his afterword:

Agatha is a made-up girl.  I have a friend named Agatha who lives in Repulse Bay, but she is not the girl in these stories; I just like her name.  So I used it.  But everything else, well, almost everything else, that happens in these stories is true.

And what does happen to Agatha?  Well, for starters in “Agatha and the Ugly Black Thing,” Agatha encounters a black airship that terrifies the community.  In the summer of 1958, the US Navy Air Development Centre launched a helium-filled airship filled with scientists to survey the Canadian North; little did they think of the people who lived in these territories and what their perceptions might be of this ominous flying object.  In “Agatha and the Most Amazing Bird,” Agatha befriends a raven whom her grandmother has been feeding.  And in “Agatha Goes to School,” Agatha experiences residential school in the south.  Life at the school is hard although there are some bright moments as when Agatha learns how to ski and skate.

Arctic Stories are told from the loving perspective of a writer who has lived the realities of his character’s life.  The details in this book, like the skating Father Fafard and the playing of Agatha’s father’s record player in their summer tent, give it richness and depth.  And far from making one feel cold, Arctic Stories make one feel very warm, indeed!