The Queen of Paradise's Garden
by Andy Jones
with illustrations by Darka Erdelji
Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, not in your time, indeed not in my time, but in olden times, when quart bottles held half a gallon and houses were papered with pancakes and pigs run about with forks stuck in their backs seein who wanted a slice o’ ham, there were two old people and they never had no children, and they figured they were too old to ever have any.
So begins Andy Jones’s wonderful adaptation of a traditional Newfoundland tale. Of course, it’s clear from the story’s beginning that there are children on the way, and one of those children is Jack, the delightful, mischievous, big-hearted hero of so many Newfoundland tales. Told with the humour, warmth and sly wit that have made Andy Jones one of the Island’s finest and best-loved storytellers,The Queen of Paradise’s Garden follows Jack on his way to the land of the Queen of Paradise, where he searches for a magic fruit to make his parents young again, and finds quite a few other handy things as well.
The story is a free adaptation of a tale told by Albert Heber Keeping of Grand Bank, which he got from Billy Quann of Sagona Island; Keeping’s version was published in Halpert and Widdowson’s seminal collection, Folktales of Newfoundland.
Darka Erdelji has created stunning illustrations for the story. Erdelji’s artwork is at once otherworldly, wistful and playful; it adds a wonderful dimension to an already engaging story.
The book was designed by Veselina Tomova of Vis-à-Vis Graphics, St. John’s.
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Other formats available: audiobook, and print
What folks are saying about the print edition
- Named to the International Youth Library’s 2010 White Ravens List
- Shortlisted for the 2010 Bruneau Family Award for Children’s/Young Adult Literature
"Jones’s retelling effectively captures the rhythms of oral storytelling and the cadences of Newfoundland dialect. Illustrator Darka Erdelji’s illustrations are a fine match. Enchanting, magical, and very skillful, they blend rich, evocative blues, greens, and reds, delicate line drawings in black and white, and rough, folk-art representations of the characters. All in all, a wonderful, rollicking tale."
~ Carlyn Zwarenstein, starred review in Quill & Quire
"Andy Jones and Darka Erdelji, along with small press publisher Marnie Parsons and designer Veselina Tomova, have created a marvellous book that deserves a place in every school, library and folktale collection."
– Alison Mews, in Canadian Review of Materials (highly recommended)
"The reteller is writer and actor Andy Jones, a founding member of Newfoundland’s CODCO troupe. With this provenance, you might expect something original and quite fine; you won’t be disappointed."
– Susan Perren, in The Globe and Mail
