The Gaggle Sisters River Tour

Reviewed: March 26, 2004
By: written and illustrated by Chris Jackson
Publisher: Lobster Press
32 pages, $21.95

When Sadie and Dorothy begin their grand river tour it looks very much as if Dorothy is the organizational brains of the pair. She gets the raft ready and does all the practical things while diva Sadie wonders what to wear. But it soon turns out that Sadie has her own useful flashes of intuition, one of which actually gets the raft on the water, so perhaps there is a division of labour after all.

That’s “The Launch”. The rest of the book is divided into three remaining chapters, “The Moons”, “The Hat”, and “The Concert”, and each of them has the two experiencing a small crisis that turns out okay in the end. Usually, it’s Sadie who has the crisis and Dorothy who fixes it, but it is clear that the sisters are working together and that the concert tour is only a success because they are both involved.

Jackson’s watercolour cartoons are lighthearted and expressive, and his text is amusing and theatrical without talking down to anyone.

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