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C6 * THE OAKVILLE BEAVER W ednesday, Novem ber 10, 1999 v I see ) P 1 v . changing Photo by Peter C. McCusker the wav we Frances Tyrrell and her mother, Avril, have written and illustrated a Christmas book, Woodland Nutcracker. The children's book, loosely based on the Nutcracker Suite ballet, is about a family of bears and will be launched at Bookers Bookstore on Saturday. Woodland Nutcracker The magical world of bears By Carol Baldwin ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR watch, listen and interact now T and in the future Cable's the hom e of innovation. It's b rought you basic channels, specialty channels, Pay Per View, d ig ita l television and music, high speed Internet access, and more. And w e 're constantly upgrading to make it even better. In the fu tu re, you can expect things like telephony, video-on-dem and, web brow sing, interactive TV and games. All th ro ug h yo ur cable. So stay tuned. And get ready fo r th e fu tu re. he National Ballet of Canada introduced a new country, Russian Nutcracker a few years ago. Now Oakville artist Frances Tyrrell and her Avril have introduced a new country, Canadian Nutcracker in their recently released children's book Woodland Nutcracker. This book, Frances's eighth, uses some of the same characters from her seventh book, but it is not a sequel. "I thought the bears were there to do another book," she says of the two main characters in Woodland Nut cracker who married at the end of her previous book. "They're not specifi cally tied in, but in my mind these are the same bears. It is the same cottage. It is the same landscape.. .and some of the woodland friends have stayed the same, the squirrels in particular." The Woodland Nutcracker story, written by Avril, follows the original Nutcracker Suite ballet to a point, veering off as Tyrrell's Clara leaves her parents' Christmas party and flies in a hot air balloon, with her animated nutcracker doll, to Ursa Major (the constellation in the northern skies that contains the Big Dipper, also known as the Great Bear.). "Do you take the standard Nut cracker and just insert bears, or do you do a story? I thought we should do a real story," says Avril, explaining that she began her tale by thinking of the original Nutcracker story, with bears. However, the King of Mice and his battling band of bullies in the original tale soon turned into hungry country mice ready to do battle over food in a northern Ontario cottage. `T hey've come for food. They're hungry. And the little bear, Clara, stops the battle. She says, `Truce. No one fights on Christmas E ve...' I thought it more appropriate to have a truce," Avril explains. Clara then helps the mice fill their sacks with food, and the mice go away happy. Consequently, her nutcracker doll turns into a cinnamon black bear prince and as a reward for bringing about the truce, he whisks Clara off not to the Sugar Plum Fairy but to the Great Bear, Ursa Major. "And she (Ursa) summons all the bears of the world to come out and mother honour Clara, the peacemaker," Avril continues. "And instead of a ballet, it's a circus of the stars - Le Cirque des fitoiles." Then, says Avril, once the North Pole was settled upon as the setting for the rest of the story, "everything fell into place." And all the bears of the world, some facing extinction, became part of the story - black bears, South American spectacled bears, giant pan das, grizzly bears, and even koalas. "It's a fantasy story with an edge of reality that will make a child-think," explains Avril. Frances, who often talks to school children about her books, says she is quick to admit her fear of real bears to the kids. However, the bears in her books are friendly, and those in Wood land Nutcracker do any number of activities from dancing and gymnas tics to high wire walking and even hockey playing. " Woodland Nutcracker is a jammed packed story. It's very difficult to get it all into a 32-page book. It's like an overstuffed Christmas stocking," says Avril. "You have to take time to look at it." And by looking at it, she means examining her daughter's colourful illustrations, which are each bordered with even more illustrations that are crammed with details of the story. Like the original Nutcracker, once Clara leaves the living room of her home, the story becomes a play within a play. So, the borders around Frances's main illustrations include an audience, an orchestra pit and even a balcony for the blue jays. But they also include such things as dancing pup pets, toy soldiers, Christmas cake, clocks striking midnight. The text is on the left-hand page, the illustrations on the right. But even the text page has small illustrations at the bottom. The right-handed page features each species of bear as it performs its special circus act for Clara, the Nut cracker Prince, and Ursa Major, who are all sitting on ice thrones on the opposite page. Once the act is com plete, the following page shows that particular bear or bears enjoying the next performance with the spectators. It doesn't take long before the lefthanded page is not only crowded with text but also with performing-bearsturned-spectators. And the attendant serving refreshments to this crowd of bears is none other than Ursa Minor or "Little Bear." As with any theatrical production, there is a program for theatregoers, or in this case readers, which is included with the book. This Woodland Theatre program lists the cast members mother, father, Clara, Peter and guests played by black bears; puppets played by striped skunks; SaritaThapa played by lesser panda; and so on. It even sports advertisements and lists spon sors - fine dining at The Den, trans port provided by Beaver Canoe, shoes by Petit-Paws... Frances has dedicated Woodland Nutcracker to the chocolate fairies who left chocolate kisses in her mail box and other strange places around the house during the two years she spent working on the book. The original paintings for the colourful, intricately detailed illustra tions in this children's Christmas book are on display in Toronto at Mabel's Fables on Bloor Street West, just east of Royal York Road. Those originals include 16 sets of paintings which consist of one large painting (as seen on the right-hand side of each page in the book) and a smaller picture hanging above (as seen in the border around the main picture), as well as 28, or 14 sets of two, rondels (as seen below the text in the book). Woodland Nutcracker is priced at $18.95 and will be launched in Oakville on Saturday (Nov. 13th) from 1 to 3 p.m. at Bookers Bookstore, 172 Lakeshore Rd. E. I v U CABLE i w ... 'J l X v SOLUTIONS tvxvxv. c o g e c o . c a Photo by Peter C. McCusker BOLD LANDSCAPES: An exhibition of Rod Charlesworth's new paintings at the McLaren-Barnes Gallery opened on Saturday. The Kelowna, B. C. artist is seen here with his Over The White Pass painting. Charlesworth's earliest paintings were influenced by the surrealists. Later, he discovered the works of impressionist artists, which have taken him to his current artistic interests, including experimenting with colour and the physical qualities of paint. Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven have also had a profound influence on his work. His Oakville exhi bition will continue in the gallery at 133 Reynolds St. until Nov. 20th