One Is Canada

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

One Is Canada is a cumulative counting book with each number to 10
focusing on a different aspect of Canadian culture. For most of the
numbers, young children can easily grasp the subject matter, such as
Canada’s physical characteristics (the “5” great lakes, “3”
adjacent oceans), political divisions (“10” provinces), artistic
heritage (Group of “7”), and time (“9” centuries since the
Vikings landed). Some of the concepts may require explanation by the
adult sharing the book. For example, “two are the hands joining in
friendship” has an accompanying picture of children from various
ethnic backgrounds, but multiculturalism is a fairly abstract notion and
there are far more than two children pictured. Also needing explanation
is “four are the compass points,” as very young children may not yet
have encountered map skills and the illustration is more stylistic than
informative. The number “6” symbolizes the “Six Nations and all
the First People,” but neither the text nor the appendix indicates
which of the Native bands comprise the six nations. Also confusing was
“8” for the eight lines of “O Canada!.” The appendix states that
there are eight sentences in the first verse (and eight letters in the
first line), so it would have been helpful for readers unfamiliar with
the words to see the verse printed and for those who know the lyric to
see where the line breaks are.

Bill Slavin’s illustrations are bold and lavish, with edge to edge
double-page spreads and large number graphics. It is unfortunate,
though, that some words (e.g., Nunavut, Lake Superior) are obscured by
the centre binding. A minor point is that some musical notes in “O
Canada!,” though correctly placed on the staff, have their stems
pointing the wrong way. In all, while this counting book does represent
the diverse nature of our country, more editing could have made this a
much better volume. Recommended with reservations.