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Description
Winner of the 2011 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the 2010 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the 2011 Ezra Jack Keats and New York Public Library New Writer Award, and a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration
The little girl in this story lives with her family in a trailer in northeastern Saskatchewan, where her father is building a dam. She knows everything about the place she lives -- her road, her school, the forest where she plays hide-and-seek and where the wolf howls at night, the hill where she goes tobogganing in winter . . .
But the dam is nearly finished and when summer comes the family is moving to Toronto -- a place marked by a big red star on the map at school. Have people in Toronto seen what I've seen? the little girl asks. And with her teacher's help she finds a way to keep everything she loves about home.
This simple, beautifully written story, complemented by Matt James's vibrant, imaginative illustrations, will resonate deeply with anyone who has had to leave their home for a new place.
Contributor Notes
Laurel Croza lived near four dam sites when she was a child, moving nine times and attending six schools before she was fourteen. I Know Here, her first picture book, illustrated by Matt James, is based on her memories of leaving Saskatchewan for Toronto. It won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Ezra Jack Keats and New York Public Library New Writer Award, and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, among many other accolades. Laurel’s second book, From There to Here, picks up where the first left off. She lives with her family in Toronto.
Matt James is a noted painter, illustrator and musician. His books have won many awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (I Know Here, written by Laurel Croza) and the Governor-General’s Award for Children’s Illustration (Northwest Passage). Matt lives in Toronto.
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age:
- 4 to 7
- Grade:
- p to 2
- Reading age:
- 4 to 7
Awards
- Commended, USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List
- Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens
- Winner, Ezra Keats New Writer Award
- Commended, Capitol Choices
- Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
- Short-listed, TD Canadian Children's Literature Award
- Winner, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award
- Short-listed, Red Clover Award
- Short-listed, Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award
- Commended, CCBC Choices
- Commended, Horn Book Magazine Best Books of 2010
- Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustration
- Commended, Quill & Quire Books of the Year
- Winner, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature
Editorial Reviews
The simple, straightforward text is spot-on in capturing the child's sensibilities and feelings...A regional look at a universal slice of childhood.
— SLJ
...poignant...
— Teaching by the Book
This little book is not only a poignant treatment of home and stability making way for the unknown, it's a testament to the resilience of children. Laurel Croza, in her text, gives us a worthy protagonist as well as a glimpse of Canadiana most city kids will never experience ... it's a book worth buying. And sharing.
— Montreal Gazette
. . . will resonate with readers who have also had to leave the place they know and love. For readers who haven’t had to move, the story will help them appreciate the place they know all the more.
— Worlds of Words, The University of Arizona College Education Review
...simple and profound...
— New York Times Book Review
Don't miss the endpapers, a map of the central provinces, embellished with a child's priorities.
— Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW
...will resonate deeply with anyone who has had to move as a child.
— Guelph Mercury
Kids facing their own wrenching upheavals will take heart in the girl’s celebration of her roots and what she knows about herself and the world, all of which give her strength to move on.
— Booklist
...a beautifully wrought tale...
— Globe and Mail
...a simple, achingly beautiful picture book.
— Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW
...a great tool for engaging students in discussions about Canadian geography, nature, dams, preservation of wilderness areas, change and descriptive writing.
— CM Magazine
Croza conveys beautifully the precise, multi-sensual awareness and familiarity that comes in childhood, in which knowledge of place can seem an inalienable part of identity.
— Toronto Star
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
