Love from Katie

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

Every year a special tree is chosen for Boston as a thank you from Nova
Scotia for services rendered in the aftermath of the Halifax explosion.
Enter Katie, whose family owns the Christmas tree farm that sends the
tree this particular Christmas. Katie is charmed by the idea of the huge
thank you, and decides to add her own little one by concealing a message
in the tree. It is later discovered and results in her participating at
the tree-lighting ceremony in Boston.

The fair amount of explanation and historical photographs don’t
overwhelm the story as the focus is firmly on Katie. The only break in
the flow is when an unanswered question causes you to think you’ve
skipped a page. Katie is portrayed as a normal little girl, bored by
rain and excited by Christmas, and her reactions are appropriately
childlike.

The illustrations are less successful, however. The backgrounds are
nicely done, with interesting details, such as squirrels scampering in
the tree and Katie’s drawings displayed on her Grandpa’s bulletin
board. Unfortunately, the faces are clumsily executed and sometimes
disproportionate. One guiding principle of design must surely be that a
face does not straddle a double-page spread, where it is subject to the
vagaries of bindings. This was ignored, and indeed the middle of a face
disappears into the spine gutter. With better editorial guidance this
could have been much better. Recommended with reservations.