A Day in Canada

January 15, 2015
Gurth adds to his series of books about Canada with this look at time. Beginning in Newfoundland and Labrador and moving west through a single day, readers greet the sun at 6 a.m. and then are introduced to a single location and activity for each of Canada's 10 provinces and three territories (a map is provided on the endpapers). A bull moose pedals along Confederation Trail at 8:30 a.m. A bit later, a moose calf dances a jig at the Miramichi Folk Festival. The text is framed in a series of gentle imperatives: Explore an old fort, have a picnic, smell the flowers in Assiniboine Park, kayak Lake Louise, hike, pan for gold, barbecue on the beach. Many of these can be done almost any place, though two particularly tempting activities are difficult to do just anywhere: sleep beneath the northern lights and "2:45 p.m. / Slide down the Athabasca Sand Dunes." An old-fashioned alarm clock in the bottom left corner displays each time in whole hours and 15-minute increments. Gurth's digital illustrations feature thick black outlines filled with brilliant colors. Simple details and animal characters will attract the youngest lapsitters, who may want to try some of the activities depicted, even if they can't do them in the specific Canadian environs described. (Picture book. 3-7)

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