McDonald’s Happy Meal Books – A Day in Canada

This sweet picture book from popular illustrator Per-Henrik Gürth begins simply with, “It’s time to wake up. What will you do today?” It then takes readers on a sunrise-to-sunset tour across Canada, showcasing all kinds of fun adventures to be had from coast to coast to coast. Each colorful spread shows a different time of day and location with a corresponding activity. For example, “7:15 a.m. Help unload fresh vegetables at the Halifax Farmers’ Market.” Ideas range from waking up with the sunrise in St. John’s to falling asleep under the Northern Lights in Nunavut, and cover all manner of places in between, from large cities to national parks, in every province and territory. On each spread, there are two representations of what time of day it is: in the top left the time is written out in numerals (such as “6:00 a.m.”), while in the lower left the time is depicted in an illustration of an analog clock.

Using vibrant, bold colors, the artwork features a variety of lovable Canadian animal characters — familiar from Gürth’s other titles — participating in each activity, and providing delightful visual cues to the text for pre-readers. This book is a perfect fit for teaching young children how to tell time and useful for discussions about what we do at certain times of the day. A map of Canada, with markers for each location, on the endpapers makes this a fun introduction to Canadian geography as well. It is also simply an appealing, heartfelt celebration of all that is beautiful and special in Canada.