This book, from another small Ontario publisher, is a labour of love which could be based on the creators’ own experience. The author’s sister, Karen Reinikka, has provided workmanlike watercolour illustrations which incorporate her colours into some of the text. The story has a pleasant, if unexciting, flow. Because this is the only time readers have seen Arlene since the childhood pictures of her in red velvet and blue silk, it is hard to think of her as something more than an abstraction. The last picture shows her sitting on a dock looking out on a peaceful lake at sunset. Then she decides that she is “tired of making things” and takes retirement from sewing. As a grandmother, she makes more toys and, finally, quilts for all the grandchildren, using pieces of many previously-shown fabrics. Arlene was busy, but she still liked to sew.” She makes clothing for the children, and the remnants provide materials for a teddy bear and a hand-made doll and a stuffed elephant which are treasured by the recipients. Then, “When Arlene grew up, she had a baby girl, and a baby boy, and ANOTHER baby girl and ANOTHER baby boy. Arlene makes doll clothes and accessories from the scraps left over from her mother’s projects. Thunder Bay, ON: Split Tree Publishing, 2013.Īrlene is a little girl who learns to sew by observing her mother sew dresses and blouses for her, using velvet “as red as a Valentine and as soft as a puppy”, and silk “as blue as Arlene’s eyes and as soft as water”.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |