Carly's Stories

Ted McGee is an associate professor of English at St. Jerome’s
College, University of Waterloo.

Carly’s Stories begins with the words “Lindsey loves her little
sister” and ends with “And Carly loves Lindsey back.” The positive
aspects of this sibling relationship are reinforced by Ruth Ohi’s soft
watercolors. Tempering the book’s drift toward the cute and
sentimental are the range of emotions Lindsey feels (not only love and
concern, but also confusion, weariness, and suppressed amusement) and
the story’s humor, particularly that provided by a vivacious pet.

The story is especially good in representing a toddler’s sense of
reality, one in which dreams or conversations with toys are no less
credible than evidence. Carly’s stories come from her imaginings, and
they lead to play with Lindsey, through which fantasies are integrated
and fears defused.

The relation of illustrations to text is problematic in that there
often is no relation. For example, there is no mention in the text of
the birthday party or the balloon ride depicted in the pictures of baby
bear, lion, and tiger. Even odder is the illustration of Carly sitting
opposite two stuffed animals near the corner of a bare room. The text on
the facing page has no direct relevance to this illustration—nor does
that on the next; only two pages later do we learn, in passing, that
Carly has conversations with her teddy. Are the text–picture
inconsistencies deliberate? Do the illustrations of the birthday party
dramatize how a toddler’s words fail to capture the vivid detail of
her fantasies? Is the illustration of Carly alone in the bare room
intended to convey the isolating effects of her sense of reality?
Carly’s Stories fails to provide the terms that would allow the reader
to understand its own illustrations. Not recommended.