Small can be beautiful where books are concerned.
All kinds of books can be small. Here are some examples.
The Adventures of Gus and Isaac: Backyard Bullies by Debbie Hanlon (Breakwater Books, St. John's, $12.95) is a fine example of the numerous small books written for children, whose meaning transcends their format.
I Was Here: Saint John, N.B., by Claudette A. Emerson (available from the author at imaginationunlimited@live.ca, $10.00) is almost small enough to be a pamphlet. However, it's a collection of beautiful photographs which really do capture much of the essence of the Port City.
And Games of Chance, by the Irish-Canadian Gerard Beirne (Oberon, Ottawa, no price given), is a collection of poems based on - or should we say entangled with - mathematics. Books of poetry, of course, are usually small, but this one is also different. It has a lot to say.
The Adventures of Gus and Isaac: Backyard Bullies, we meet Isaac, a cat with almost no tail, and Gus, a seagull who's scared of flying. How they become friends and defeat the three bully cats, Vamps, Berg and Flake, is the subject of the story.
However there are other aspects of it that are worth mentioning, including the way Gus gets over his fear of heights and that flying applies to more than seagulls. It all takes place on the roofs and in the yards of old St. John's. And the illustrator, Grant Boland, has combined cartoon techniques with realism (mostly in the setting) to enhance the story beyond the usual children's book. It's recommended.
I Was Here is by a professional photographer who moved to Saint John from the United States several years ago. Thus her view of the city is partly that of a visitor and partly that of a resident. This explains not only the choice of subjects for her pictures, but the way the text is written. It's bright and cheerful and not touristy at all, which makes it suitable for anyone who has been, or will be, visiting Saint John.
It might even inspire someone to go to the city just for pleasure.
It can be ordered from the author/illustrator at imaginationunlimited@live.ca.
Games of Chance: A Gambler's Manual is not about gambling at all. It's more like meditations on several aspects of mathematics - rotation transformations, thermal expansion, probability and Pi. It's not like any poetry one has seen before and it can be read with appreciation by non-mathematicians.
Elizabeth Cran is a freelance writer who writes a book review column for The Guardian. To comment or to send her books to review, write her at 111 Sydney St., Apt. 17, Saint John, N.B., E2L 2L8, or call her at 506-693-5498.
