Amanda's Book

Laurence Steven is Chairman of the English Department at Laurentian
University and author of Dissociation and Wholeness in Patrick White’s
Fiction.

Amanda receives a scrapbook as a birthday present from her parents and
decides to cut out and collect everything she likes, including rooms
from her family’s house, the moon, clouds, sky, and sun. She pastes
them all into her book. Soon her parents and neighbors start to notice
that important things are missing, and the city becomes disorganized,
not to say chaotic. There is no light outside, and the birds are walking
around on the ground. Amanda ends up jumping into her scrapbook in
pursuit of her cat, who has noticed the light spilling out. She runs
magically over the pages of the book, catches her cat on the moon, and
together they wait until a breeze ruffles the pages and blows everything
back into the world again.

Amanda’s adventure is enchanting: she talks to her cat, collects
untouchable items, and makes the biggest hodgepodge of a mess that a
five- to eight-year-old child can imagine. Westell uses such devices as
repetition and incongruity to add humor to the story. Ohi’s
illustrations take an almost surreal delight in discordia concors:
rhinos show up at picnics, while bicycles rest in trees and umbrellas
float by unattached to any human hand. The book frees youngsters to use
their imaginations. As a bonus it may also give them a new perspective
on things we often take for granted, like the sky, the moon, and the
sun, by teaching children to treasure them.

The unflappable Amanda is easy for children to relate to. Her
first-person point of view ensures that there will be no difficult
vocabulary or complicated ideas for children to contend with. This
perspective will appeal to children, because the story is being told by
someone their own age, an insider—it comes across to them rather than
down.

Ohi’s large and abundant watercolors are the book’s biggest
strength. The illustrations both judiciously reflect the story and,
through their multitude of colors, evoke the desired feelings.
Altogether, Amanda’s Book is fun, perfect for bedtime reading, and
might encourage young readers to start collections of their own.