Those familiar with the pleasures of summer freedom will appreciate the alternating moods of tranquillity and elation in this book. Narrated in the first person by a young Anishinawbe Ojibway boy, the story spans a summer day he shares with his grandfather in the northern woods of central Canada. The specific location remains unnamed, as does the narrator, who is identified only as Noshen, the Anishinawbe word for grandson. While the anonymity of character and setting gives the situation a universal appeal, the dialogue between the two characters underlines how important specific places and their inhabitants are to their own tradition and identity. The grandfather teaches respect for the land and its creatures. The boy, for his part, is a model student: he listens and learns in disciplined silence. This attitude is one of the less plausible elements of the story, but then again, an obstreperous child or chronic prankster in the same situations – for example, among the pack of timber wolves – would have made this a rather unpleasant cautionary tale.

The writing style is forthright, perhaps excessively so in some places where the sentence structure becomes too repetitive. On the other hand, the description is often elaborate and highly evocative in its analogies, as for instance when the rising sun becomes an orange ball pulled up by spiders’ strings. The dialogue is sparse, but the paucity of chatter is central to the point of the excursions, which is to become a careful and subtle observer of one’s surroundings. One of the most effective aspects of the narrative is that it proceeds in the present tense: this, especially when considered alongside the watercolour landscapes in the illustrations, gives the book an appropriately meditative quality.

The illustrations, which combine intricately detailed pencil crayon drawings with the watercolours that Reczuch has used so successfully in her previous work, contribute thematically as well as esthetically to the book. For example, a beautiful double-page spread shows a family of loons in vibrant detail in the foreground while the human observers occupy the distant background in soft watercolours. This places the scene in perspective in two important ways, making the loons clearly visible to the reader and giving the creatures pride of place in their own milieu.