Just a Walk

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

One day Chuck decides to go for a walk in the country, a seemingly
straightforward activity, but one that leads to a series of adventures.
He falls into the river and goes over a waterfall, falls out of a tree
onto a bear’s back, gets picked up and carried aloft by an eagle, and
gets stranded on a cloud. Chuck quite enjoys all of these misadventures
and comes to no harm. Eventually he ends up in his own backyard.

The text is in verse form: very simple poetry in sets of two rhyming
lines that impart a lilting cadence in keeping with Chuck’s
happy-go-lucky attitude toward his experiences. The rhythm of the poetry
is compelling—rather like that of a Dr. Seuss book.

Just a Walk is divided into two parts. In the second part, the story is
reproduced exactly as it appears in the first part, except that the
rhyming word at the end of every second line has been left blank for the
reader to fill in the correct word. The illustrations in the second part
have also been left blank for the reader to color in. This little book,
therefore, becomes an activity book as well as a story. Highly
recommended.