RALPHY'S TRIP TO THE WEST

A gosling accompanies his family on a trip from Ontario to British Columbia in this debut illustrated children’s book.

The night before a White family’s holiday trip from North Bay, Ontario, to Vancouver, British Columbia, its incubator-raised gosling pecks his way out of the shell, announcing: “HELLO, I’M RALPH. / I’M HERE TO STAY!” The young gander can’t be left alone, so the family decides to bring him along in a hay-lined box. Ralphy is excited about traveling, though he doesn’t enjoy staying in his box and would rather be held. That’s not always convenient, so the open glove compartment becomes his cozy nest, where he can look around at Canada’s scenery and tourist attractions or socialize between naps. At motels, which usually say NO PETS, Ralphy gets a bathroom-sink pond to splash in. When the car breaks down near the Rocky Mountains, Ralphy sees his first snow. The gosling and his family get a warm welcome in Vancouver, and on a visit to Stanley Park, Ralphy meets wild geese. They invite him to stay, but the gosling is nothing if not self-confident. He’s proud to be a “genuine pet” and is looking forward to returning home, where he’s hoping for his own pool. In her book, Bartsch offers an amusingly self-centered hero. Children can get a sense of the pace of long car trips from the story as well as an introduction to Canadian travel. The tale’s rhyming couplets sometimes scan well but often stumble in meter or rely on iffy rhymes, as in “I can’t wait to grow. Once grown up, / I’ll get my very own bathtub.”Heyman, illustrating her first children’s book, supplies watercolors that are somewhat unpolished, especially when depicting human figures, but deftly render Ralphy’s charm.

An enjoyable tale of cross-country travel from a young bird’s perspective.