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by Susan Perren

This lovely circular tale begins and ends with a horse but gallops off in several other directions before its work is done. In the beginning, 'A barn can have … a horse in it' leads to – on the next page – 'And a house can have a 'me' in it.' Which in turn leads to the statement that a bowl can have berry in it. These perfectly logical non sequiturs nicely reflect the stream of consciousness, the assertions and questions of the very young of, say, three or four years of age, and their fascination with things within things.

Betteridge's frothy, charming watercolours keep time with the 'story,' which covers a considerable amount of ground – from that bowl with a berry in it, to the question of whether a sock can have a head in it (answer: 'No! But a sock can have . . . a toe in it.'), to the assertion that a car can have a granny in it. Threaded through all this is the whiff of a narrative that goes something like this: A granny arrives with a treat in a brown bag, FedEx arrives with a surprise in a box, a blanket appears with a 'wiggle' in it ('Let me hold that baby!'). Wrapping it all up is the assertion that 'a pocket can have a treasure in it. A bed can have a teddy in it. A sky can have a moon in it.' And then the question and the end to all our circling: 'Can a story have a barn in it? Yes. And a barn can have a horse in it.'

First appeared in the Globe and Mail, May 2008.

KATHY STINSON, Canadian Author of Books for Young People

A Pocket Can Have a Treasure in It

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