Down by Jim Long's Stage: Rhymes for Children and Young Fish

Mary St. Onge-Davidson is president of the Essential English Centre in
Ottawa.

Pam Hall’s colorful, uncomplicated artwork livens up this
republication of an earlier book of rhymes by Al Pittman. Hall, the
winner of the Canadian Library Association’s Amelia Frances
Howard-Gibbon Award for Best Canadian Illustration in 1977, has truly
given comic character to Pittman’s fish—impressive fish with names
and a purpose other than being eaten. The vivid colors makes it
interesting for young readers to recall what the fish look like, and the
nonsensical rhymes emphasize sounds that are easy to remember. Pittman
takes us one splash further with Atlantic maritime accents making the
rhymes fun to read aloud and offering young readers a chance to play
with language. Highly recommended.