From personal experience, I know what a major upheaval immigrating to a new country can be: exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. It's hard to imagine what children must feel when faced with this, especially when they do not always understand all that is happening. These two recent picture-books deal with this subject, with varying degrees of success.
The books' plots are very similar. A girl of about seven feels overwhelmed by her new life in Canada. In both books, parents are not much help, as they are busy establishing themselves. It is left up to the two protagonists to find solutions to their problems. Hollie in Steel Drums & Ice Skates helps herself regain confidence by mastering ice-skating; Gita in Roses for Gita learns that the old man living next door is not such a grouch and that he reminds her of her beloved grandmother, whom she had to leave behind in India; this lessens her loneliness.
The differences between the two books emerge when one considers their authors' general approaches and styles. Since both books centre on the changing emotional state of the protagonists, the authors must come up with a satisfactory way of describing this-not at all an easy thing to do.
Dirk McLean, in Steel Drums & Ice Skates, is only partly successful. In the early part of the book, which describes Hollie's life in Trinidad, he proves he has a deft and delicate touch, effortlessly showing Hollie's happiness and security through his simple yet evocative descriptions of her everyday life. Unfortunately, he does not maintain this; once she arrives in Toronto, it is as if he has decided to stress the various problems, emotional and cultural, that a child coming from the Caribbean might face; these troubles take precedence, giving the book a didactic feel. Rather than being allowed to get inside Hollie's thoughts and feelings, the reader is often told explicitly how Hollie feels, which has a distancing effect. Her misery is belaboured so much that her change of heart-once she finds something she does like and when the Christmas festivities start-is hard to believe.
At all times, Rachna Gilmore concentrates on Gita's emotions, rather than the events that have caused them, and this works much better, letting the reader empathize with her situation. We are not told under what circumstances Gita came to Canada, only that she is feeling lonely and that, in an attempt to cope with this, she is making wind chimes like those her Nanaji had in her garden. From this modest beginning, Gilmore draws the reader into Gita's thoughts, memories, and feelings, through her deceptively simple narrative and imagery. One example is the way in which she deals with Gita's initial fear and dislike of her elderly neighbour, conveying this beautifully by having Gita think he has "monster eyes".
Dirk McLean is not helped by Ho Che Anderson's illustrations, which are unsubtle in their choice of colours, and quite sophisticated and stylized for their intended readers. The cover is particularly murky and unattractive. Alice Priestley's illustrations are also rather too sophisticated at times, but being more naturalistic in style they do not distract from the text, but complement it.
Many children will be able to relate to these books, but Rachna Gilmore strikes the truer note when describing emotions, something Dirk McLean will do when he learns to trust his readers more, recognizing that most can deduce things without being told.
Gillian Chan is the author, most recently, of Glory Days & Other Stories (Kids Can).
