Jason's New Dugout Canoe

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

Jason’s precious dugout canoe is washed away during a storm. Luckily,
his uncle is the canoe-maker for their tribal village in the Pacific
Northwest. He offers to make a new canoe for Jason and pass on the
traditional skills that have been handed down for generations. This
story describes the construction of the canoe, from its beginning as
part of a red cedar tree to its launching many months later.

Although meant to be a storybook for young readers, this book reads
more like a step-by-step construction manual on building canoes, and
even includes an insert on how to build a dugout canoe as well as a
glossary of terms. The somewhat dry prose is enlivened with descriptions
and illustrations of scenes from the tribe’s past as they go about
their daily lives. These are juxtaposed with their modern equivalents to
make an interesting contrast.

Although Jason is a sympathetic character to whom young readers can
relate, there is so much emphasis on the construction process in the
story that he merely becomes a foil for it. Children with long attention
spans will be best able to concentrate on the minutiae of the process. A
saving grace is the excellent illustrations, which will focus interest.
They are colorful, lively, and detailed and can be used as points of
reference for the text. One small but surprising omission is the
raven—a good luck symbol that is mentioned more than once and was left
out of an illustration in which it was obviously meant to appear.
Recommended with reservations.