June 2007
From Our Neighbors to the North
As I was in Toronto for IRA 2007, I found several beautiful books by Canadian authors or illustrators. Here is a selection of my favorites.
Enjoy!
Ancient Thunder
Written and Illustrated by Leo Yerxa
This is a beautiful book about the wild horses that used to live in the Canadian plains. The author and illustrator Yerxa uses his memories of these wild horses as an inspiration for the text and illustration. To create the look of worn leather, paper was hand treated and vibrantly painted to look like authentic First Nation clothing. The result is a book where the clothing and the horses in the illustration seem to move. The text is lyrical and brief to allow the readers to focus more on the illustrations.