Dragonfly Kites

Highway's bilingual English/Cree story (originally published in Canada in 2002) has been reissued with new illustrations by Flett, an artist of Cree-Métis ancestry. Brothers Joe and Cody-with their papa and mama and dog-live in the "far north," their summer home a tent on one of Manitoba's many hundreds of lakes. There are "beautiful islands and forests and beaches and clear water. But no people." The boys give names to sticks and stones, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and even ants; but their favorite pets are dragonflies, which they fly like magic kites on pieces of thread. For hours the boys follow their dragonfly kites, until finally they set them free-only to find them again in their dreams, leading the boys up, over, and into the ecstatic beauty and freedom of the "gold and pink of the northern sunset." Highway's text has a graceful simplicity, evoking the deep pleasure of brothers at play in a serene, remote setting. Flett's art enhances those qualities: the seemingly empty stillness of water and light, the dark expanse of meadows, are pricked into liveliness by tiny petals and the luminous white of a flower, or the delicate membrane of a dragonfly's wing. The elegant page design cleanly incorporates the English and Cree texts. deirdre f. baker

New ed., 2002, HarperCollins. Brothers Joe and Cody--with their family--spend summers camping on Manitoba's hundreds of lakes. The boys' favorite pets are dragonflies, which they fly like magic kites on thread--only to find them again in their dreams. Highway's bilingual English/Cree text (cleanly incorporated into the elegant page design) has a graceful simplicity, and Flett's new illustrations enhance it with quiet colors and textures.