The Curiosity Cabinet

Gr 2–4—Using the framework of a curiosity cabinet, Wallace creates a pictorial memoir and homage to his Canadian homeland. Each spread, or shelf, depicts a province or territory represented by objects and treasured memories from his 40 years of cross-country travel. Many of the physical objects were gifts from people he's met and schoolchildren he's spoken to: a family of tamarack geese from Ontario, beaded earrings for his wife from Quebec, a Northwest Territories license plate. Others recall experiences: a bucket of mussels from Prince Edward Island, whales in the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, and mysterious ancient forests in Vancouver, B.C. All these are lovingly reproduced in textured and shaded grayscale pencil drawings. Objects are sometimes hard to distinguish, and some cry out for color, especially the depiction of child's painting whose "luminous rainbow" is anything but. Four pages of illustrator's notes at the back describe and explain the images and provide additional context. These illustrations don't have the vibrancy of, for example, Wallace's illumination of Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy, but collectively they demonstrate the breadth and variety of the Canada he has so often celebrated in his picture books.