Michael Mayes

British Columbia runs a television channel called the Knowledge Network. It's PBS and there's a lot of crossover in programming (as many of our children's programming is made in collaboration with Canada) On the day after Boxing Day while stuck in the Harbour Towers doing laundry, my daughter and I watched hours of this channel: a documentary on the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park, Peg + Cat, Mr. Maker, a documentary on knitting, and some other stuff that slips my mind. In between segments there were little informal things with the children's programming mascots: Luna, Chip, and Inky.

Luna is an owl. Chip is a beaver. Inky is an octopus. And with all our television watching we learned they have a book, Which Way Back? by Michael Mayes. My daughter and I were immediately smitten. As it was our last full day in Canada, we put in an order with our local bookshop.

The three friends decide to take a picnic. They have so much fun exploring the forest that they get lost. Most of the book focuses on each friend harnessing his or her own unique talents in a collaborative effort to get home.

The artwork is simple in form and cheery in color, except for the forest when their imaginations run wild. While perhaps not the most brilliant book about friends pulling together in a crises either of us have read, it remains a sentimental favorite — a way to remember the end of our first family trip to Canada.… (more)