Librarians looking for a picture book about Canada for young children will be pleased with this offering from a small new publisher. Crazy for Canada is a short book that features each region of the country on a two-page spread. Narrated by Lester B. Beaver, a spunky version of one of Canada’s national symbols, the rhyming text describes various stops that Lester B. makes on his cross-country vacation. Using only two or four lines of rhyme on each spread, author Noa Schwartz packs in a regional highlight geared toward kids, for example: “So to the Prairies I went next./ Can you see me hiding?/ The flatlands full of wheat fields/ Were great for horseback riding.” Each spread also contains a “Did You Know?” fact about the region. (Some of them use rather abstract concepts involving huge amounts, such as 18 million pounds of snow and six million loaves of bread, making them more appropriate for older children.) A place in the region is marked on a small map in the corner of each left-hand page. (Cities in seven provinces and one territory appear on the maps.)

The illustrations are done in Plasticine, using the technique made famous by award-winning Canadian illustrator Barbara Reid. Mick Beaumont and Susan Tebbutt’s Plasticine illustrations are bright, comical, and well executed (although they lack the rich detail that Barbara Reid adds to her models). Beaumont and Tebbutt’s human characters are cartoon-like, which is just right for this book.

Readers see Lester B. engaged in a variety of pursuits: in the rodeo ring of the Calgary Stampede, in goal for the Montreal Canadiens, and ice-fishing in the North, to name a few. While many of the situations are sterotypically Canadian, they will give children a few snapshots of some aspects of Canadian life.

This book takes a lighthearted amusing approach to helping kids get to know Canada. Parents and teachers may well find it a good springboard for related activities, such as having kids write a poem about their town or region or create a Plasticine model of what makes their area fun to visit. A sequel – perhaps titled Still Crazy for Canada – could offer young readers a broader view of life north of the 49th parallel.