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I've recently spent some time getting to know the Canada Goose... see what I mean?

Let me back up... Regina's beautiful urban park, known as Wascana Park, is about to turn 50-years old this summer, so in celebration of this landmark, author Jean Freeman decided to write a children's book about the park.

The main characters of the story are Lucy and Alexander, a pair of Canada gooses, er, I mean geese who've made Wascana Park their home. The two of them pass through the seasons of the park, moving to various well-known venues around the lake, often just missing one another. This is where the title Wascana Wild Goose Chase! comes in.

Illustratively, I was able to incorporate not only all the beautiful greenery and landscaping, but some of the interesting architecture of the surrounding buildings, starting with the Saskatchewan legislature. This gorgeous building was completed in 1912 and very nearly didn't make it past its first year. The infamous Regina cyclone just barely spared the new building in the summer of 1912, carving a path right around its periphery. Anyway, I digress...

In addition to the pictures and Jean's rhyming story line, she's also included on each page a series of stamps, in which she provides interesting tidbits about the scene, such as where the name "Wascana" came from, why the city was referred to "pile o' bones," where did the Queen's favourite horse come from, and more goodies of this nature.

I had a lot fun recalling my youth in Wascana Park, especially hanging out at Wascana Pool.... here's just a snippet of the pool illustration that appears in Wascana Wild Goose Chase...





The illustration that took the most time is, happily, also the one that made it to the cover... here it is, complete with Jean's stamps...  talk to you later!

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Spring in northern climes such as ours is heralded by the return of birds.  For us, the honking of geese in the skies are a sure sign of the season.  When we lived in Alberta, we sometimes went out into the countryside to see the return of the snow geese.  Their flocks would fill the sky in swathes of white and blanket the fields on the ground.  In Manitoba, it is mostly Canada geese that make their presence known in spring.  Just the other day, I saw a pair gracefully wafting along the edges of a nearby creek.

Two books I have read to my children about migrating birds and spring are Swan Sky by Tejima and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof (illus. Lars Klinting.)  Swan Sky is a picture book that tells the story of a young swan who is unable and unwilling to make the migratory flight northwards in spring.  It is a poignant and simple story, beautifully illustrated with the woodcut prints of the author. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils is a longer book and is a children’s classic in Sweden. Commissioned by the National Teacher’s Association in 1902 as a reader for geography, the story of Nils took Lagerlof three years to research and write.  Nils is a mischievous farm boy who is punished for his cruel acts to the farm animals by being turned into a wee tomte.  In order to escape the anger of his parents, he hitches a ride on a domestic goose who yearns to be like the wild geese flying northwards in their annual migration.  On this journey, Nils tours the provinces of Sweden, experiencing adventures that make him grow up and become a responsible young man.

What is spring like where you live?  What birds do you see and hear in your part of the world?

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