Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall

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

Leo Yerxa’s tremendous talent as both poet and sculptor finds a
perfect showcase in this rich, enthralling book. His Native background
has provided both the impetus for a work of art with universal appeal,
and a genuinely original premise for those of us without a Native
heritage. The poem that makes up the text of the book portrays the
moment of the “last leaf” and “first snowflake,” arriving in
darkness, as a time for new beginnings. Rather than being a time of
death, the end of autumn ushers in a season of renewal, and the
whiteness of the snow creates a new, blank canvas. The book, which
begins with a description of “befores” (“Long ago, before time /
Before sunlight burst across the universe ...”), builds to one of the
climaxes of nature with the coming of winter and snow (“Gone were the
colors of yesterday / I arose from the earth / and walked into the light
/ of a new season”). Yerxa’s poem is not just a description of the
moment—it is a river of words that creates a delicious flash of
reviviscence in the reader or listener.

Yerxa uses both watercolor and tissue-paper collage for the book’s
illustration. Through the texture of collage he conveys a sense of
autumnal crispness, of woodfire in cold, clear air, and the look of
moonlight filtered through mist and cloud. It is not difficult to
imagine oneself into one of the bright-eyed, joyful Native bodies who
people Yerxa’s winter forest. Highly recommended for all ages.