Ah! Belle cite!/A Beautiful City; ABC

Ellen Pilon is a library assistant in the Patrick Power Library at Saint
Mary’s University in Halifax.

Ah! Belle cite! is the third children’s book on Canadian districts and cities published by Tundra. Early volumes were on northern Canada and on Toronto. The purpose of the series, according to Tundra’s news release, is to “stimulate Canadian children — not only in the places illustrated, but everywhere — to look around them afresh and to really [sic] ‘see’ where they live, perhaps even to try to paint their own alphabet of what they like in their home districts.” The alphabet is not for instruction, but for format, “ to hold the paintings together and sometimes to create puzzles.”

Ah! Belle cite! is fully bilingual. Poulin has included a series of words in each picture that begin with the same letter. The reader is to find as many as he can in French and English. A key is appended listing a few of the words in French and English. Following this is a brief verbal description of Montreal and a short description of each painting. The French and English words for each letter do mean the same (Aa, antiquaire/antique dealer; Bb, balcon/balcony; Mm, marché/market), although some of the other words in the key do not (Ww, wagon/lettre “w”, whisky; Ww, watch, water, whistle).

Presumably one of the most important purposes of this series is to develop an appreciation of art in young people through discussion of the paintings. Discussion is facilitated by the alphabet and word game and bilingual aspect. The paintings show bold, strong colours and clearly defined figures, certain to delight youngsters. Each tells a particular story: for example, “Bb balcon balcony” shows a mother pulling her little boy into the barber’s. The balcony is cut off at the top and we see only a woman’s legs, the bottom of her broom and a ball. Although the alphabet concept for a child’s art book seems a little forced, Poulin’s alphabet is well chosen and does portray an essence of Montreal which many children will enjoy.