Simon Finds a Feather

Kelly L. Green is the co-editor of the Children’s Literature edition
of the Canadian Book Review Annual.

In his seventh adventure, Gilles Tibo’s Simon, as the title indicates,
finds a feather. But not just any feather. This one is tiny and bright
red. Simon, intrigued, sets out to find the bird to whom it belongs. His
search takes him to the barnyard to visit the chickens, to the garden to
question the peacock, and to the mountains and seashore to ask the
eagles and gulls. None of them can help. Not even the magician, with his
doves, or the pirate, with his parrot, have any clues. Finally, Simon
meets a weeping cardinal with a broken wing, and the mystery is solved.
Simon and Marlene fashion a nest from all the feathers Simon has
collected along the way, and nurse the bird back to health.

Beyond Tibo’s signature illustrations, spectacular as always, this
book is remarkable textually on two counts. First, Simon unobtrusively
reinforces and animates the concept of color for his preschool audience.
Through the colors of the birds, children experience the vivid reds,
greens, blues and the more sedate browns, whites, and greys of the
natural world.

Secondly, Tibo builds gently, but consistently, from a prose
introduction to a verse climax. Beginning with just two rhyming words on
the third page, he gradually increases the verse portion of the text
until the final pages consist entirely of rhyming couplets. Children
will not be conscious of this shift, but will feel the magic the words
begin to work upon them. Highly recommended.