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Product Description
Quill & Quire
“I have always been fascinated by what defines Canada,” writes Charles Pachter in an afterword to this, his first-ever book for children. “Our history, writers, wildlife, symbols, and diversity.” Pachter, a world-renowned painter and printmaker, has, over the past few decades, been turning many of the images that fascinate him into a quirky Canadian iconography. (His painting of Queen Elizabeth II on a moose is perhaps his best-known work.) In M is for Moose, Pachter has taken his own paintings and prints and laid them out as a visual alphabet. Each page displays one or two images, and is accompanied by brief, rhyming verse. Given Pachter’s stature as an artist, the book has created quite a stir on its publication. There is a question, however, as to just how much the images that Pachter has chosen really “define” Canada any more. Though many of the paintings and images were created over the past decade, there is nevertheless a sense of being trapped within the same holy trinity of Moose, Mountie, and Margaret Atwood that was the shorthand definition of Canada back when the parents of many young readers were kids themselves. Given this country’s rapidly shifting and increasingly urban demographic, there are probably a large number of children who would look in vain for their own Canada amongst all the barns, beavers, and canoes here. Despite Pachter’s mention of “diversity,” the only non-white people depicted are natives in full ceremonial dress, a gesture that smacks of well-meaning tokenism. There is also a question of audience: would a child just learning the alphabet really respond all that enthusiastically to sombre portraits of Elizabeth Simcoe and Margaret Laurence? This suggests the book would make a better gift for the Charles Pachter fan in the family, rather than the wee one still working on her ABCs.
Product Description
The marriage of words and image is a trend in contemporary art: visual artists are painting words, phrases, and sentences onto their canvases. Taking this trend and applying it to a children's book, Charles Pachter, one of Canada's pre-eminent visual artists, has reviewed forty years of work and matched a blend of familiar and new images with words that explore the idea of Canada. From 'Alberta' and 'autumn', through 'beaver' and 'butter tart', to a portrait of Margaret Atwood ('poet'), this beautiful book will delight children, parents, and grandparents alike. It contains reproductions of iconic paintings, such as the Queen patting a moose, and paintings of historical Canadian figures Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Susanna Moodie, and Wilfrid Laurier, along with short biographies for parents. Also included is the Canadian National Exhibition prize-winning recipe for butter tarts and a complete list of all illustrations in the book. With his talent joyfully evident on every page, M is for Moose celebrates Charles Pachter's continuing fascination with the marriage of words and images, his love of Canada, and his depth of understanding of our history.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Enchanting,
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This review is from: M Is for Moose (Hardcover)
This is a gem of a book for young children.It is beautifully illustrated and a fun way for children to learn the alphabet.
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