From "A Very Small Something"

Somewhere past the wrinkled maps, and under
another sun, where favourite earrings find new ears
and missing marbles run, the hillsides made
their marvelous shapes for a town called Covington--

And a great pink factory as long as the breeze
weighed truckfuls and truckfuls of bubblegum.

Olivia Bezzlebee lives by the sea in a fantastic town with the world's biggest bubblegum factory, where its citizens blow bubbles all day. But Olivia can't blow a single one and feels as if everyone looks down on her. Leaving Covington to find a place where she might belong, she learns the true meanings of family and home.

"A Very Small Something," beautifully illustrated by Alexander Griggs-Burr, is a story to which all children--and any tuned-in parent--will be able to relate. Blowing bubbles may indeed be a very small something . . . but when you are a small child and it's the thing you most want to do, a bubble can mean the whole world.

David Hickey is one of the leading young poets in Canada, and the author of two collections, including "Open Air Bindery ." He has tested his children's poems in schools across the country for the last seven years. He is finishing a PhD at the University of Western in London, Ontario.

Alexander Griggs-Burr illustrated the Ontario Library Association Red Maple-nominated "Nieve" in 2010. He lives and works in Stratford, Ontario.