Review: This Is Sadie by Sara O’Leary, illus. Julie Morstad
Source: Digital galley courtesy of Tundra Books, imprint of Random House of Canada Limited, via NetGalley. Thank you!
Expected Publication: May 12, 2015
Verdict: Excellent

Book Description:

Sadie is a little girl with a big imagination. She has been a girl who lived under the sea and a boy raised by wolves. She has had adventures in wonderland and visited the world of fairytales. She whispers to the dresses in her closet and talks to birds in the treetops. She has wings that take her anywhere she wants to go, but that always bring her home again. She likes to make things — boats out of boxes and castles out of cushions. But more than anything Sadie likes stories, because you can make them from nothing at all. For Sadie, the world is so full of wonderful possibilities … This is Sadie, and this is her story.

It is no secret that I have adored the illustrations and artwork of Julie Morstad for a number of years; her joint book efforts with author Sara O’Leary however, are something I have recently become acquainted with!

In their latest children’s picture book This Is Sadie, readers get to dive into memories and experiences of childhood- and see or be reminded of how limitless imagination IS for us all. Sadie has wings, she flies, she sails the seas, visits Wonderland, and has lived with wolves and as a mermaid. Readers of all ages will undoubtedly be able to relate to Sadie’s fantastical adventures, or be inspired to fall into their imagination like she does. During my multiple readings of this title I have been sparked by the little sprite’s adventures and found myself thinking back to the many, many adventures (in my real life, within the pages of books, and within my own imagined creations) that I had as a child.

O’Leary’s text is conversational, understated and wholly beguiling. How Morstad brings Sadie and her world to life is blissful and so lush- I can see Sadie breaking through and over the edge of the pages, grabbing our hands and taking us back to her world and her magical cardboard box. This is a picture book that a reader can return to again and again, and one that I highly recommend reading and exploring. This Is Sadie is, quite simply, enchanting. Having now read this title as well as When I Was Small by O’Leary and Morstad, I must go back and read the rest of their co-authored works!

I received this book as a digital galley from Tundra Books, imprint of Random House of Canada Limited, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.