Emily

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

Emily was a little girl who defied the conventions for little girls in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century. She did not like pretty clothes or keeping her room tidy or obeying her sister. She did like animals and birds (and had a pet crow) and painting pictures. At school in the city, she was not interested in painting flowers in vases. But one day when her pet crow flew away into the dark forest and she chased after him, she discovered the magical way in which light dances on the leaves and the trees and the earth amid its thick gloom. Emily grew up to be Emily Carr, whose paintings have given people a new way to see and feel and smell the forest.

Emily’s story is told in simple straightforward prose, and accompanied by double-page illustrations that are alternately black-and-white and colour. One of the striking features of Emily’s painting was her use of colour, and unfortunately, beside her work, the illustrations in the book seem pale and washed out and the figures disproportionate. In one picture, the crow is as large as her head and in another, as large as her body. Moreover, Emily herself looks like a passive doll rather than a rebellious little girl. Nonetheless, we need more biography of Canadian women, especially ones aimed at a younger audience, and therefore consideration should be given to purchase.