Spirit by Cherri Ryan
Ill. by Christina Booth. Black Dog Books, 2018. ISBN 9781925381771
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Themes: Perseverance, Imagination,
Adventure A powerfully emotive tale of trying again is told in spare
prose, augmented with detailed digital illustrations, sure to
attract younger children alive with curiosity about their world, and
unwilling to give in at the first hurdle.
The young girl builds a boat from scraps around her house. She sets
it to sail in the pond in the garden and is delighted when it gets
to the other side of the little sea. That night she dreams of oiling
its deck and scrubbing the sails and wonders how far it will sail
the next day. It gets across the little rivulet into her arms. The
next night she dreams again of polishing the deck and tightening the
sails and sets it off the next morning across a river. Each night
she dreams of what might be, and the next day she tries the boat
out, each time successfully. All readers will know that something
will happen to upset the routine when reading the story with its
repeated phrases but will still be concerned when the boat comes
asunder in the larger river.
What the young girl does next will gladden the hearts of the
readers, as they experience a setback in the girl's dreams, but know
that she will try again. This is a wonderfully positive story to
read with young children, reaffirming the reality of not always
being successful but encouraging them to try again.
Children will love following the adventure of the little boat in the
illustrations, going from the pond to the rivulet then the larger
river with its hazards, larger reeds and blackening skies. Christina Booth is an author illustrator and was awarded an Honour book for
"Kip" in the CBCA awards.
Cherri Ryan has a background in medicine and is always impressed
with children coping with change.
Fran Knight