"Jesse and the Seven Wonders of St John’s" by Herbert F. Hopkins is a celebration of Hopkins’ Canadian home city. The story shines an affectionate spotlight on the city’s greatest cultural, geographical and historical wonders. Each Wonder is visited on consecutive nights over the course of a week via the dream world of its central character, Jesse. The story is gently informative without ever being didactic, but what prevents it from being a mere young readers’ travelogue is the subtly written subplot concerning the character, Sabeen, which gives the story an unexpected but genuinely felt emotional centre. Like its predecessor, Jesse and the Seven Wonders of the World, the premise of this story is the power of the human imagination to reach the furthest corners of the universe. This is a powerful and important message that no child is ever too young to engage with. The art work is gloriously vibrant, vivid and sympathetically realised which only serves to enhance an already beautiful story, beautifully told.
