A Northern Alphabet

 Ted Harrison

I love this artist!!!  We had a copy of the Cremation of Sam McGee at my parents house when I was little, and it was illustrated by Harrison.  It was one of my favourite books growing up.

 This book has a fair number of native or northern things for most of the letters.  But ukulele?  Some of them are just hokey.  But I get it.  For most of these letters, there's really nothing you can do.

I still really like this book because he took the tongue in cheek route instead of trying to be super serious about it.  And it's pretty fun to read the names of all of these northern towns and rivers and whatnot.

This is less of a baby book and more of a kindergarten or first grader's book.

Young Canada's Nursery Rhymes

 Illustrated by Constance Haselwood

Originally printed as a British collection of nursery rhymes in England, it was re-titled and shipped to Canada back when it was first settled.  A copy was found more recently and it was reprinted.

These original illustrations are fantastic.  The rhymes chosen are not all the most popular ones, which makes it a fun little book.  I'm happy that it exists and that I've found it, but it isn't nearly as appealing to my kids as other collections that I've found.

Alligator Pie

 By Dennis Lee
Illustrated by Frank Newfeld

A Canadian classic.  It's got a few poems in here about places in Ontario.  Lots of CanCon.  But most of the themes are universal.

They're actually well written poems.  The difference between this author and most "children's authors" is that this guy writes poems for adults.  He's an actual poet.  So everything rhymes properly without much repetition and the rhythm matches up and you don't have to re-read the same line twenty times trying to make it work.

 This edition is the collector's edition, so it's got some notes from the author.  The idea was to create modern nursery rhymes about things that they actually encounter rather than be about ha'penny and clinkers and princesses and paupers.

My daughter is much less interested in many of these rhymes, mostly because she's too young; they're longer and she doesn't understand most of them yet.  She's absolutely crazy for the main poem, Alligator Pie, though.  She's constantly reciting it under her breath.

The pictures in this book are so dated, but I love them.  It's a shame that this edition is out of print.  It was only printed in 2001. 

Oh, crap, that was 14 years ago.  I'm old.