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Annotated Award-Winning Titles

Jean Throop Book Award 2005
Municipal Chapter of Toronto IODE Book Award
(Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire)
For outstanding achievement by a Toronto-area author or illustrator in children's literature
Mavis and Merna
Text and Illustrations: Ian Wallace
Toronto: Groundwood Books,
2005. 30 p.
ISBN 0888996470
Ages 4 to 8

Mavis and Merna
Source

Mavis loves everything in Gully's store and dreams of owning such wonderful things as bicycles, perfume, hats, leather, and fish clocks that mark time with their tails. The store in Fortune's Cove, owned by Joe and Merna Gully, sells everything a family could ever need.

One night, Joe Gully dies suddenly and Merna closes the store indefinitely. People in Fortune's Cove think she is busy counting her money, when really she is suffering from loss and loneliness. Mavis sneaks out to see what Merna's life is really like, and rather than finding riches, finds friendship.

Mavis and Merna play double solitaire for Pot of Gold chocolates while snacking on pretzels and gingersnaps with peppermint ice cream. Mavis helps Merna learn how to work the lawnmower and drive the car. They go fishing and dig for clams, drive down roads they had never travelled, smoke licorice cigars, sip rootbeer and sing rock-and-roll songs along with the radio.

Ian Wallace tells a tale of enduring friendship between two people who, despite their difference in age, can share laughter and a love for life.

–AC