Merry-Go-Day

1991, Children's Storybook

Overview:

The adventure starts in the long lineup waiting to get into the exhibition and then takes us on a ride through the many sights and sounds inside the exhibition, such as the Zapper, the haunted house, dripping ice cream cones, pink cotton candy and bumpy bumper cars. The journey ends with the final satisfaction of a day well spent and the knowledge that next year it will all happen again. Running throughout is the disappointment of trying and failing to win a purple parrot in a game of chance, another experience familiar to most people.

How I came to write this book:

Merry Go Day is one of my favourite book of poems because it was inspired by the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and energy of a day at The EX - otherwise known as The Fredericton Exhibition but affectionately referred to as "The EX". - where my children and I went every year. The book is now out of print but there is a tape! So keep checking the Fitchcast podcast.

Excerpt:

“my legs are scrambled eggs, my mind is a lemon rind…”

• Illustrator: Molly Lamb Bobak
• Pages: 999
• Reader age: toddlers and up
• Publisher: Toronto: Doubleday Canada Ltd, 1991
• ISBN: 0-385-252447