On the Go

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

On the Go is for the youngest of readers. In large print and rhyming
quatrains (four short lines every two pages), this picture book touches
down with Georgia and Gigi at various spots on their holiday jaunt.
These central characters are two friendly, lively, be-stubbled brown
mice who fly their pet cat to “strange new lands.” Their stops
include a bear’s lair, an African jungle, a kangaroo race, an alien
planet, a wheatfield, and a craggy peak. The verses—in their English
translation at least—are too often flat, even inconsequential; only
occasionally does verbal play rival the richness of the illustrations,
as in this bit: “In a field of wheat / The colour of butter, / The
butterflies / Were all a-flutter.”

The illustrations are the real strength of this book. Originally
watercolors, they draw on a full palette. The figures and scenes mix a
tendency toward abstract forms with naturalistic features. As such, they
capture some things in exquisite detail, such as the fronds of wheat,
the butterflies, and the butterfly net held aloft by Georgia (or is it
Gigi?). Apart from the comic reversal of cats and mice, whimsical
elements in the pictures add to the fun, especially for those—young
and old—who can (and should) explore the scenes visited by two mice on
the go. Recommended.