Go Home Bay

by Susan Vande Griek, Pascal Milelli

Overview

In 1914, Tom Thomson spent the summer at a family cottage on Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay, where he taught the ten-year-old daughter, Helen, how to paint. Author Susan Vande Griek and illustrator Pascal Milelli have imagined this time through Helen’s eyes, providing an intriguing glimpse into the famous painter’s life.

Helen and her father greet their visitor on the rocks of West Wind Island. She is fascinated by everything about him — his canoe full of gear, his paint-stained hands, his campfire stew. Over the next few days she watches as Tom paddles off to fish and clambers over the rocks to paint. And then he invites Helen to paint with him — wildflowers blooming near the cottage, boats rocking in the water, pine trees blowing in a storm. And at summer’s end, he leaves her with a memento of their time together.

The story, told in lyrical free verse, has a quiet charm, while the illustrations capture the natural beauty that inspired some of Thomson’s most memorable paintings.

An author’s note provides more information about Tom Thomson’s life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554987016
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	638,711
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD980L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

SUSAN VANDE GRIEK is the author of several highly acclaimed children’s books. Her picture book Loon, illustrated by Karen Reczuch, was named a USBBY Outstanding International Book and won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award and the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction, among others. She has also written Go Home Bay, illustrated by Pascal Milelli, about the artist Tom Thomson, and An Owl at Sea, illustrated by Ian Wallace. Susan lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Pascal Milelli graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1988. His book

The Art Room, written by Susan Vande Griek, won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for Illustration in 2002. Visit Pascal Milelli's website: http://www.pascalmilelli.com/

Editorial Reviews

Go Home Bay is a lovely, gentle book that breathes art and poetry.

Quill & Quire

"With a strong sense of place, this moody, contemplative title coalesces into a story that will resonate with nature lovers and artists alike." — School Library Journal

"Go Home Bay is a lovely, gentle book that breathes art and poetry." — Quill & Quire

From the Publisher

06/01/2016
Gr 2–4—Canadian painter Tom Thomson spent the summer of 1914 painting landscapes on Georgian Bay, Ontario, while visiting the MacCallum family. He left 10-year-old Helen with a painting on which she noted, "Given to me by Tom Thomson the summer he taught me to paint." From this brief note, Vande Griek imagines the events of that summer through Helen's point of view, using spare, free verse poetry: "I look out from the dock/at the sun-end of day,/as Tom the canoeist paddles out and about, dip, dribble, glide,/on a now so-calm bay." The process of painting and the passion Thomson felt for his work are introduced to readers through Helen as she observes and learns from the artist. The northern wilds of Ontario, which inspired Thomson's work, are brought to life through Vande Griek's carefully constructed poems, as well as through Milelli's expressive artwork. The heavily saturated oil paintings convey the sense of immediacy present in Thomson's work, while re-creating a sense of the wild scenery that so inspired him. With a strong sense of place, this moody, contemplative title coalesces into a story that will resonate with nature lovers and artists alike. VERDICT While it is smart to be wary of fictionalized history, there's no harm here; this beautiful and evocative introduction to Thomson's work is recommended for general purchase.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

School Library Journal

2016-02-17
Inspired by a historical encounter, a child remembers Canadian artist Tom Thomson teaching her to paint during a summer sojourn at her father's lakeside home. As in the creative team's The Art Room (2002), a similar tribute to Canadian artist Emily Carr, Vande Griek's spare, poetic narrative links a series of harmonious scenes done in strongly brushed strokes of greens, blues, and golds. Arriving at the lakeside house one afternoon in a canoe filled with "fishing gear, / camping gear, / painting gear," Tom makes mulligatawny stew over a campfire and then, as days pass, ventures out with the young observer to paint flowers and boats, trees, and moonlight on water. All the while, as a sort of refrain, the west wind blows "gentle" or "fresh," "light" or "wild," and when at last it blows "away" with July's passage, the young man too departs. Milelli incorporates inexact but evocative versions of some of Thomson's paintings into his outdoorsy illustrations, and Vande Griek closes with a biographical note enlarging on the 1914 visit and the painter's prominent place in the history of Canadian art. A restrained, lyrical introduction to a nature artist whose work and reputation justify the exposure to young viewers south of the border. (resource list) (Picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews