Off We Go! by Beverley Abramson

Off We Go!
By Beverley Abramson
Tundra Books, $15.95
24 pp.; ISBN: 0887767281

Review by Amy Brozio-Andrews

I realize it's a huge generalization, but in my experience, there are far more children's picture books that exhibit and encourage quietude -- hearing a story for a kid, even an exciting book with great pictures, is just that: a story being told to you -- rather than encouraging activity, inspiring kids to run and jump and play. Sometimes, you just need an invigorating start to your day, and Beverley Abramson's Off We Go! is a terrific match for that.

The book isn't a story in the traditional narrative style. Think of it as a preschooler's visual call to action. The text is reminiscent of a poem. Each page has one word or a short line that describes the accompanying photo illustration. The text on the facing pages is matched in terms of complementing rhyme and meter: "Fly / Kick it high…Heave-ho / Toe over toe." Abramson's writing is vibrant and each word punches through the page, almost defying the child being read to not to participate. The words are printed in a color that blends in with the color, tone, and hue of the photographs, and are offset from the focus of the image of a child performing an action.

The really nice part about Off We Go! is that as much as kids will love having it read to them, many will be able to feel the satisfaction of being able to read it to themselves. For kids, the text adds context and meaning to the pictures, but the illustrations dominate. This is definitely an image-driven book, which makes it a good choice for pre-readers who want to read it themselves. With Off We Go!, they can.

The real joy in Off We Go! is Beverley Abramson's outstanding photography. Kids of all ages and ethnicities are shown being active: kicking, balancing, running, hopping, splashing, skating, and more. It's a credit to Abramson's skill as a photographer that each of her subjects appears completely not self-conscious -- there's a purity and innocence in the children's facial expressions and their physical movements. The only thing I would have wished (and it feels nitpicky, because all of the photographs really are that good) is that perhaps she would have also chosen to photograph a child with a physical disability, too, to reflect the opportunity kids of all abilities have for physical movement.

Winter, spring, summer, fall, Abramson covers it all in her illustrations. Kids splash in the water, tumble in the leaves, play in the snow, and fly a kite in a field of green. The photographs are presented with the subjects at about the same depth, and full-page sized. The action of the children's movement is really the primary focus of the photographs and Abramson's action shots convey this quite clearly.

Experienced and award-winning Canadian photographer Beverley Abramson seems quite comfortable shooting her subjects in motion and it shows; a current project of hers, Gotta Dance - the Exotic Language of the Body, focuses on dance in culture and practice. Off We Go! is her first children's book.