The Carousel - Ursula Dubosarsky and Walter Di Qual

If you know Ursula Dubosarsky’s work, your eyes will light up when you hear she has produced a new one. Her track record for representing the interior world of the child is well established, and can be evidenced in the wake of her extensive collection of fiction and nonfiction. Her capacity for delving into the machinations of a child’s imagination is demonstrated exquisitely in The Carousel.

 

When a small girl rides on a carousel, she becomes so entranced by the experience that the edges of her reality blur into a delicious world of fantasy. Her wooden horse is infused with life as the carousel whirls into motion; the girl’s focus shifts from her father on the sidelines to her relationship with the horse in a magical world that allows them to be ‘free as wind and hurtle through the wild sky’.

 

The Carousel is a stirring story, enchanting and passionate. It is a celebration of wild abandon, of being transported to a state of being where everything else is forgotten and anything is possible. The book is suffused with a richness of symbolism and imagery. There is poignancy in the anticipation of the ride – the girl, ticket in hand at the gate – and in her disappointment when the carousel begins to slow, but more so, at the end of the ride, in her desperate wish for the wooden horses to be set free. Walter Di Qual is a newcomer to book illustrating. His distinctive depictions of the story in mixed media on Fabriano paper take the text to another level and infuse the characters with depth and vibrancy. His evocative portrayal of the horse and the girl range from tender, to baleful, to feisty.

 

The Carousel is dream-like, limitless. It is as veiled and ethereal as it is unbridled and jubilant. Written in rhyme and meter in constrained quatrains of iambic tetrameter, an almost restless contrast is established between the free-spiritedness of the story-line and illustrations and the verse.

 

This delightful read-aloud picture-story book, in which a small girl on her horse dares to hope and dream, invites readers to search for the imagination within themselves. It is engaging and enlivening and will appeal to young readers and their teachers and parents alike. Older children will enjoy the story and its themes of freedom and enchantment at a different level. Highly recommended.

 

Penguin 2011

 

(A version of this review appears in Magpies Vol 26, Issue 5, November 2011)

The Return of the Word Spy - Ursula Dubosarsky

Yes, it’s true. The Word Spy is back. She snuck in by bus, train and plane without anyone noticing. And shhh, don’t tell, but she’s uncovered a heap of fascinating facts about words. Reading The Word Spy was adventure enough, but this time the trail takes some tricky twists and turns through language itself. A lot of snooping goes on, I can tell you. The Word Spy’s torch illuminates the origins of language, different types of languages – dead ones and new ones – sign language and Braille. There’s even a real Braille page in the book to run your fingers along! She talks about “the language of the road” and the symbols that swaggies used in case there were angry dogs about.

From babble to Chomsky, over-extension to metaphors and similes, you can be guaranteed the Word Spy has unearthed a fine selection of language peculiarities with her pick – and explained her findings with humour and intrigue. But there’s more.

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, subjects and objects. Don’t worry, the Word Spy isn’t one for boring grammar exercises. She takes the reader on an adventure to meet a one-trousered man, nouns like ice cream, verbs like goldfish and a whole float of crocodiles. If that’s not excitement enough, there’s a quick dip into etymology and a squiz at neologisms. And, like in The Word Spy, a puzzle to solve at the end of each chapter and a message to crack at the end of the book.

Ursula Dubosarsky gathers in her readers as the Word Spy takes them into her confidence, on a fascinating linguistic adventure, enriched by Tohby Riddle’s endearing illustrations. A great book to whet childrens’ appetites about the complexities and elaborateness of language.

Teachers will love it.

Allen&Unwin 2010