Scott the starfish rides again — this time by kayak.
The adventures of the smiling sea star, first published by MW Books of Garden Bay in 2012, proved a best-selling children’s book, much to the amazement of illustrator Melanie Eastley and writer Jennifer Fraser.
Now its sequel, Scott the Starfish — A Wild Ride!, has been released by the same publisher and is now available on the Coast.
Eastley lives in Sechelt, and though Fraser lives in Alberta, the two have kayaked together in Sunshine Coast waters. Scott the Starfish was based on a true incident: Fraser’s three-year-old questioned how a starfish on the road had strayed so far from the beach. The second book is a simple story, but with enough adventure to hold a child’s attention. Children as young as one and two years old can enjoy it, up to ages five or six.
“My daughter wanted the second book to have a girl starfish,” Fraser said, and so Scott’s sister, Isobel, figures in this sequel, along with Igor the eagle and, in a nod to Fraser’s family, a grandfather figure in the shape of Mac, the whiskered harbour seal.
Eastley, a graduate of the Alberta College of Art, has graphic illustration training. Her pictures are a chuckle, with some detail on every page to amuse both children and parents.
A Wild Ride! is available at Talewind Books and EarthFair Books on the Coast for $13.95.
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Children aged five to seven, especially those who love music, will be attracted to The Wandering Violin by Marina Sonkina, also published by MW Books.
An orchestra’s first violin becomes grumpy and restless, while playing the same music over and over. Eventually she runs away from her safe violin case and her beloved maestro to see the world. She meets a rude squirrel and a circus elephant and holds a conversation with the wind.
This is classic fairy tale material — like the stories of Hans Christian Andersen, set in a long ago era when castles dotted the landscape and tinkers roamed like gypsies. The tale has an old-fashioned feel to it.
“Old-fashioned is an interesting word,” Sonkina said, “implying that at some point something was fashionable then stopped being so. Yet, in my mind, there are plots that are never new or old; they’re engraved in our psyche as archetypes, no matter what technological innovations inundate our desks, our pockets and our minds. Desire for an adventure must be one of our archetypal wishes.”
The story will also be attractive to adults since it features such an intelligent violin, and because it is accompanied by many charming, painted illustrations by Wlodzimierz Milewski, rendered in much the same style as illuminated manuscripts from long ago.
Originally from Moscow, Sonkina lives in Vancouver and also has a home in Gibsons. She teaches Russian literature and film at two Vancouver universities and has published several collections of short stories for adults. The latest one is called Lucia’s Eyes and Other Stories (Guernica Editions).
A new children’s book, Gail Snail, Teller of Tales, is due in early 2015 with MW Books. Sonkina notes that “writing a good children’s book is as difficult as writing a good one for adults.”
The Wandering Violin is available through Talewind Books and EarthFair Books for $16.95.
