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  • Postcards
  • compiled and edited by Barbara Lehman

Set in the hustle and bustle of New York City’s Manhattan, Bob Staake’s Bluebird is a wordless narrative that brings together a shy young boy and a charismatic little bird in its exploration of both camaraderie and bereavement. After quietly observing the boy’s rough day at school under the jeers of some schoolyard bullies, the bluebird takes it upon himself to swoop in and befriend him. Staake’s effective use of multi-paneled spreads traces the nuances of the boy and the bluebird’s blossoming relationship as they play a game of hide and seek, share a cookie, and sail a toy boat at the pond where the bluebird connects the boy to the other friendly children playing around them. The increasing darkness of Staake’s grey, white, and blue palette brings with it a reappearance of the scowling bullies; and as the bluebird dives between the boy and the stick one of the bullies throws, the unexpected death of the bluebird is tackled head on by Staake through a small solid black panel followed by a zoomed in focus on the boy’s emotional changes from shock to grief and, finally, acceptance. The bullies fearfully run away, but in their place the boy is greeted by a flock of rainbow-coloured birds, which lift him and the bluebird high above the city skyline. Meant to be an open-ended conclusion to the book, the reader is encouraged to bring his or her own interpretation to the story – a powerfully visual and wordless way to escape didacticism and empower discussion about an intense subject matter.

Melissa Li Sheung Ying



Bluebird
Bob Staake
New York: Schwartz &
Wade Books, 2013;
40 pp.
ISBN 9780375870378
(Picture Book; Ages 4+)

Kata Kata Kata The Building is a story about a treadle sewing machine, a little girl, and her grandmother. The machine amazes the little girl because it makes many beautiful things and answers her wishes. One day while her grandmother is halfway done making her drama costume, the machine stops working; therefore, the grandmother finishes sewing the costume by hand. Standing proudly on stage in the costume made by her grandmother, the girl realizes it is grandma who makes her wishes come true. To give her grandma a surprise, the girl and her father transform the out-of-order sewing machine into a table for the grandma to enjoy tea.

Told from the girl’s point of view, Kata Kata Kata is a book full of sensory details. Through the words and pictures, readers see how the sewing machine works, hear its kata kata kata sound, smell the osmanthus, and feel the line of stitches on the cover. The endpapers show the motif of wallpapers in the girl’s home, which set the mood for the story. The unrestricted lines and strokes match the girl’s mischievous behaviors and imaginative mind. This book received the 2015 Feng Zikai Best Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award.

Yi-Ching Su




(Kata Kata Kata)
Bei Lynn
Illus. Bei Lynn
Taipei: Art & Collection
Group, 2014. 36 pp.
ISBN: 978-986-6049-66-8
(Picture book; ages 5+)

Canadian musician Stan Rogers composed the song “Northwest Passage” in 1981 to describe his own “passage overland, In the footsteps” of explorers and to remember John Franklin’s disastrous 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage. In this stunning book, recipient of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Illustration, Matt James combines paintings that accompany the song with illustrations about Franklin’s quest to discover the Northwest Passage, a sea route to connect the Arctic region with the Pacific Ocean. The resulting visual feast features colorful, expressive illustrations rendered in India ink and acrylic paint that depict the words of the song, the journey of Stan Rogers, and interesting facts about exploring the Northwest Passage. The song’s chorus refers to John Franklin, who lost two ships, 134 men and his own life, in his failed attempt to discover the Passage. An annotated timeline begins in 6000 BCE with the arrival of the first Arctic peoples and ends in 2012 with the lowest recorded ice levels in...

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