- Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens 2008
Artist and designer Barbara Wyn Klunder takes on classic nursery rhymes and turns them on their heads, adding her own quirky twist to familiar favorites.Rock-a-bye baby laments the loss of her treetop to logging. Old Mother Hubbard must resort to a food bank. Jack and Jill discover that their well water is polluted, and Mary watches her garden flourish with weeding and fertilizing. Second-hand smoke, recycling, allergies, logging, pollution, oil spills, gasoline shortages and crooked politicians are all treated with Klunderesque whimsy and wit. Graphically striking, spiky, engaging black-and-white illustrations drive the point home — what are we doing to the planet?
close this panelBarbara W. Klunder is an eclectic artist gifted in many genres and media, among them hand-knit sweaters (launched in New York with the help of Vogue), hand-hooked rugs, fonts, illustrated books, posters and logos for clients ranging from theaters to jazz festivals to the Rolling Stones. Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and at other institutions around Canada. She is well known for her commitment to human rights and environmental causes which led her to published Other Goose: Recycled Rhymes for Our Fragile Times with Groundwood. For the past twenty years she has spent most of her time on the Toronto Island which inspired her book The Animal's Day.
close this panel...a blend of environmental messages and irreverence...While many of the poems detail environmental horrors, others present a brighter side, and simply encourage readers to appreciate the world they live in.
...funny, and thought provoking...
With her clever rhymes and humorous sketches, Barbara Wyn Klunder seems barely able to contain her own mirth...The precarious state of our planet has proven perfect fodder for Klunder's creative mind and talents.
...an excellent and fun introduction to the study of the environment. Although humorously portrayed, the message presented is one of deep concern for the preservation of our natural resources and the future...
Her illustrations are strong and accomplished.
She has gently but subversively twisted classic nursery rhymes that we all know by heart and to illustrate subjects that urgently require all of our attention, right now...an innovative way for parents and teachers to humorously introduce some important issues to children.
...Barbara Wyn Klunder updates traditional rhymes with a modern, often environmentalist bent...caricatured cross-hatch illustrations are sure to catch the eye.
...turns nursery rhymes upside-down...
