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Story is a basic way of organizing our human experiences, a framework for learning. We search for our own stories in the stories of others.
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On My Walk
AboutWinters, Kari-Lynn. (2009). Illustrated by Christina Leist. On My Walk Vancouver: Tradewind Books. 32 pages. Ages 1-5. ISBN 9781896580616. OCLC number 423601674.
Read more about this book at Wikipedia. About the IllustratorBorn and raised in Germany, Christina Leist now lives in Vancouver. Before becoming a full-time illustrator, she worked in advertising as an art director and graphic designer. She illustrated Baad Animals (2005) and The Graveyard Hounds (2008) for Tradewind Books. PurchaseAwards
PressInterview with Book Bites for Kids on blogtalkradio.com, July 7 2010: Reviews CM Magazine XVI(25) March 5, 2010Review by Linda Ludke. 3½/4 excerpt:
A young boy, his mother and their dog enjoy a leisurely summer stroll through a neighbourhood park. Along the way, they hear a horse “clippity-clop” and a frog “frippity-frop.” They stop to watch a cricket “hippity-hop” and a fish “flippity-flop” Their adventures are cut short when storm clouds appear and the “drippity-drop[s]” turn into a downpour. Running all the way home, they revisit the sights and sounds they passed earlier in the day. The very simple text, with onomatopoeic words, is great for reading aloud. Toddlers won’t need much encouragement to join in the chorus of “slippity-slop[s]” and “clippity-clop[s].” Christiana Leist’s fetching mixed media illustrations complement and extend the story. The spotted dog shares the child’s discoveries (and also surreptitiously shares an ice cream cone). The scenes are presented from the eye-level of the child so you often only see the mother’s hands in the background. Earthy brown and green hues and use of stencils give a lushness and freshness to the pages. Share this book at storytimes, or pack it in your knapsack when you go on a neighborhood literacy walk. Highly Recommended! Linda Ludke is a librarian in London, ON. Quill & Quire January 2010Review by Nathan Whitlock A young, curly-haired kid in overalls heads out for a summer walk with his rambunctious dog and pregnant mom. (It’s not entirely clear whether the kid is a boy or a girl, but “boy” seems most likely.) They wander through what appears to be a suburban park, coming across a horse, a frog, a bug, and a fish, buy an ice cream cone, then get rained on and have to hoof it home, seeing everything they’d spotted earlier, but in reverse order. This picture book collaboration between author and educator Kari-Lynn Winters and Vancouver illustrator Christina Leist (who previously illustrated Vi Hughes’s YA novel The Graveyard Hounds) couldn’t be simpler. Winters’ rhyming text has the kid hearing his world as a series of “-ippity -op” sounds: “I hear a horse, clippity-clop, clippity clop, and a frog, frippity-frop, frippity-frop.” While it doesn’t exactly scream originality, the patient and hypnotic rhythm is exactly the kind of thing that will worm its way into the memories and imaginations of toddlers, who will likely start ippity-oppiting themselves after a single reading. (Though the book could serve as a first reader, kids at the upper end of the suggested age-range may give the whole thing a shruggity-shrug.) Leist’s layered illustrations work well with Winters’ words, turning path, pond, and beach into a lively riot of green leaves and grass against a background that is various shades of brown, with faint ships, mountains, and a city skyline on the horizon. The transition from sunny day to cloudy one is subtle, but by the time the rain really hits, the book’s pages seem wonderfully stormy and waterlogged. The Bookbag March 2010Review by Keith Dudhnath. 3½/5 A little girl is going for a walk with her mummy and her dog. They hear a horse saying clippity-clop and a frog saying frippity-frop. They enjoy all the sights and sounds of the beautiful summer’s day, until it starts to rain, drippity-drop, drippity-drop… On My Walk is a lovely tale of a summery jaunt, and the run home in the rain. The simple rhymes bring to mind The Bear in the Cave by Michael Rosen and Adrian Reynolds. Young book fans will enjoy the pace of the story. Not every rhyme is as familiar as it could be (do frogs really say anything approaching frippity-frop?) but the format helps brush over this somewhat. The structure of out then back again makes it immediately familiar, and will have its young audience joining in with it. Christina Leist’s illustrations have an interesting style of their own, mixing lino cuts with simple line drawings. I enjoyed the pictures, but the palette is rather muted – I could have done with a few more brighter colours in the mix. I know it’s supposed to be the outskirts of a city, just before a storm, but leaving aside the necessary grey clouds, it makes the fun part of the walk seem more mundane than it should. The lake should be bluer, her ice cream more inviting. The underlying quality is obvious, but it doesn’t grab you as much as you’d hope. The criticisms are small, petty things. I love the general premise and most of the execution, but there are just a few little touches here and there that mean On My Walk doesn’t blow me away as much as it could. There are plenty of positives and they could well click with you. Do have a flick through and see what you think. Worth a look. Word of Mouse Book Reviews, July 29 2010Review by Stacey MacNevin One of the first things people ask when I say my daughter is now 14 months is: “Is she walking yet?” (My fabulous and childless friend, Shirley, has been asking me this question since Emmerson was six months!) “Almost” is how I often reply. She is so close I know it will happen any day! While I am excited for her I try not to push; I’ve learnt babies do things in their own time. The other thing I realized about having a baby is that others (and often parents themselves) are eager for them to hit those developmental milestones. I suppose it’s a reassurance of the natural order of things and I think a genuine desire to know the child is doing well. Often, I think we forget how hard it is to learn something like walking. In The Book of Awesome (Amy Einhorn Books, 2010) author Neil Pasricha writes: Like learning anything tough and life-altering, learning to walk is a messy process that takes time and patience. So true, so true (Question: is it bad form to mention another book in a book review? I suppose I can get away with it as this isn’t a children’s book…) I think because learning to walk is such a big step (think of what walking did in the evolution of our species-thank goodness for Homo erectus right?!) it is so honoured and revered as an important rite of passage from babyhood to childhood. So perhaps because it is such a challenge and such a milestone that taking walks with children is so magical. Their young and inquisitive minds notice everything, from the smallest detail to the most mundane and soon even the same route taken daily becomes a new adventure each time (dogs are great at this too –even though you may cover the same route, each day its new: new scents, different creatures; dogs never get bored!) I love that this magic is captured in the picture book On My Walk written by Kari-Lyn Winters and illustrated by Christina Leist (ISBN: 9781896580616, Tradewind Books, 2009). This book is delightful covering all the sensory joys of a child while out on a summers walk: sights, sounds, tastes and tactile. The simple text has lots of noises to say out loud which is very appealing to toddlers (my daughter loves sound effects!) and the illustrations add to the animated feel of the urban landscape (feels like Vancouver…) I also love the little dog bounding around with his/her black patches and the pregnant Momma (you don’t see that very often and I think that’s great to have represented in kids literature especially for the targeted age group, toddlers, might likely find their own Mommies in a similar way). A charming, rhyming tale sure to please the newborn to age 4 crowd and parents alike! (I love text that includes sounds effects too-so fun!) Winters is an award-winning picture book author, playwright, and performer and has probably already moved to St. Catharines, Ontario by now where she recently accepted a position at Brock University as a professor of drama-in-education and literacy. According to her bio she completed graduate work at the University of British Columbia, which focused on combining the arts with reading and writing and only began writing picture books eight years ago. You can tell there is a performance aspect to her writing, with the noises and rhyming you get the feeling that you can act out this book. Her website contains her entire bibliography from which you can see her books often have a fun rhyming theme. Liest is originally from Germany where she studied Graphic Design at the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden (and I have actually been there!) and now resides in Vancouver. She is the illustrator of a couple of picture books and has written and illustrated her own book Jack the Bear (Simply Read Books, 2009) and I am sure she loves to walk too given her beautiful depiction of a toddler’s family outing. Emmerson will walk when she’s ready and as I say, she’s almost there. Part of me will miss the “baby” part of her but I am also looking forward to creating our own adventures. This book will help up celebrate that! Interview with Lori Calabrese, published April 8, 2010From http://loricalabrese.com/rollicking-rainyday-walk and examiner.com (see earlier interviews by Lori Calabrese for World of Stories and Jeffrey and Sloth): Orca Book Publishers recently published Kari-Lynn’s first picture book, Jeffrey and Sloth (2007), a tale about a boy who has writer’s block and the imaginary creature he creates to help him write his story. Other picture books include aRHYTHMetic and Runaway Alphabet. I had the fortunate opportunity to interview Kari-Lynn Winters about her latest book, On My Walk. (See also my two previous interviews with Kari, on Jeffrey and Sloth and World of Stories.) How did you get the idea for “On My Walk”? Two separate ideas guided me as I wrote the manuscript for On My Walk. First, at the time, I had a young daughter who loved rhythmic and rhyming books. However, most of the books available were too long for her two-year old attention span (e.g., Madeline or Dr. Suess). For this reason, I wanted to write a book for her—one that she would enjoy and be able to finish. Second, I adore the story Going on a Bear Hunt (Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury). I love how it guides you into the narrative and then out again. I wanted to try a similar approach. How long did it take you to get from idea all the way to publication with this book? At least two years. It is difficult to believe that a book with a mere 75 word count could take so long to develop, but it did. Do you have any suggestions for sharing this book with young readers? Absolutely! Personally I use props and hats. However, here are some other ideas: a) Listen and Find Christina Leist has carefully hidden the animals and items listed in the text inside the illustrations. Ask the child/children to listen to the story and to try and to point out these items. b) Make your own rain storm Try clapping, snapping, and stomping together to create your own rain storm. c) Sing the story This rhythmic story lends itself to singing. Try it out for yourself. Or even better make up your own rhymes based on what the story offers. d) Point of View Encourage pre-school and kindergarten children to figure out which character is telling the story. The clues come in the illustrations. How did your experience as a pre-school teacher influence this book? My background experience as a Montessori pre-school teacher influences me in so many ways. I remember how the children at the school responded to rhythms and books. This was in the foreground of my mind as I wrote On My Walk. It is such a joy to see children take ownership of a book—both through their bodies (e.g., clapping, jumping, dancing, pointing) and through language (e.g., singing along, repeating the phrases). As a writer, how can I resist such amazing learning opportunities and such FUN! I do hope that young children will take ownership of On My Walk in these delightful and engaged ways. Tell us about your upcoming books. Runaway Alphabet is an alphabet book that is coming out with Simply Read Books (An award-winning local company) this spring (2010). It is a book like no other. It is an alphabet book that focuses on the sounds of the letters. I can’t wait until this book hits the shelves. It is exactly the kind of book that I needed as a child. When Chickens Fly is published by Gumboot Books. It is a story about a chicken that isn’t allowed to compete in the Snow Sports Competition because she is a chicken. In many ways this is a story about equity and fairness. Is there anything else you’d like to add? Yes. A few things. I recently achieved my doctorate. I am so pleased. As a child, I struggled with literacy concepts. Sometimes I look in the mirror and think, “Who is this person?” Then I smile, knowing this person is a determined and hard-working author/professor who knows that dreams are possible! Teachers’ and Kids’ activities
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