A Prairie Boy

Author/ illustrator of the best-selling children’s book trilogy ‘The Moccasin Goalie’, Bill Brownridge has a new picture book: ‘A Prairie Boy’.

With a story that opens your eyes, and artwork that opens the rest of your senses, Brownridge reveals a new world to kids with his thick ‘pointillism’ paintings presented in wow-ly colorful double-page spreads.

For Tony LaDrew, living on the farm with his grandparents is a lonely life. He only has his pony Trix and his dog Bingo for company. And as a Metis boy, it isn’t easy making friends. But playing hockey makes all the difference to Tony - whether on a slough, on a road, or on a rink – he loves the action. Swooping down the ice is like flying, like another world.

Too bad his grandfather doesn’t like hockey. On top of that, there’s a local tough guy giving him problems. At every turn, Tony seems to face another challenge. And now, with his big chance to join the team coming up, he has to take drastic action.

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Brownridge opens a new dimension to kids with his impressionist paintings of kids at play. His application of dabs and dollops of ‘fat’ acrylic paint in the Van-Gogh technique of pointillism accentuate tone and dimension, the vivid swathes of colour and diagonals exclaim action, while the moody blends heighten the wideness of the world and us in it. As the books says, it’s like another world. And the door’s open. Take a step.

Imagine reading a picture book together. You and your boy and girl look at the pictures together, take turns reading the words, compare words to pictures, talk about the people and the story. And then you talk about the ‘art’. But is it art or just funny drawings and amateur scribblings - it’s hard to tell.

For once it’s nice to have the real deal. Real fine art. With Brownridge, a renowned Canadian artist with galleries across the country, with his introduction of fine art into the picture book, he opens the door to talk about colour and texture, light and shadow, style and theme, feelings and fears and awe and wonder – using kid’s language, of course, so they can understand.

You see, that’s the learning part, your exchange – the talking. The book doesn’t teach. It’s you and her and him, you’re all teachers, all learners.

Take a step.