Crazy for Canada

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English specializing in
children’s literature at St. Jerome’s College, University of
Waterloo.

The aim of this book is to provide illustrations of the places that
Lester B. Beaver visited on his vacation. Representing various scenes in
Plasticine, the pictures meet children on their home turf and give them
a glimpse of what they too might make with it. The strong, caricatural
figures, together with the bold colors and textures of Plasticine, are
at once memorable and suggestive of the complexity of the Canadian
scene. Images of diversity include a multiethnic, multiracial group on
Parliament Hill; male and female Mounties; and an igloo and a snowmobile
side by side.

For the most part, however, the images are typical ones: prairie wheat
and the Calgary Stampede, maritime fishing and the Montreal Canadiens,
B.C. skiing and the CN Tower. Each place Lester B. visited appears on a
map in the shape of a stamp and occasions a quatrain such as this one
about Quebec City: “Then onward to the carnival / Salut mon bon ami! /
C’est fantastique au Canada / With lots to do and see.” This verse
epitomizes the unevenness of the book. On the one hand, there is the
laudable attempt to portray Québécois culture; on the other, there is
that flat, vague last line to remind us that good rhyming verse in
English is not easily turned out. Not a first-choice purchase.