Hopscotch
Written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay
Groundwood Books, 2023, 40pp [unpaged]
ISBN: 978-1773068435

Hopscotch is a picturebook told from the perspective of Ophelia, a young girl with an enormous imagination. We first meet her in her backyard where she is watching a neighbor dog, Jackson, who is tethered to a long rope that allows him to walk back and forth, but nowhere else. Ophelia is bothered by Jackson’s confinement and dreams of helping him escape. But before she can, Jackson disappears. Ophelia misses him so she crosses her fingers, wishes on shooting stars, and rubs a magic stone, hoping for his return. She finally draws a magic hopscotch where she wishes even harder for Jackson to come back, live with her and be her best friend. He never returns. Instead, Ophelia’s father has a new job, and the family moves yet again to a new house and town. Even though her mother tells her not to be sad, Ophelia wants to stay and wait for Jackson. When the family arrives in the new town, they stay at an old motel where Ophelia describes the giant rabbits in the fields and crow-witches she sees in the sky.

Ophelia must now go to a new school. Her mother reassures her that she will learn her numbers and letters there, but Ophelia wants to learn how to fly. When she gets to her classroom, she is greeted by her teacher, a fairy princess who speaks to her in French. Her mother assures her she will learn the language quickly. Ophelia is stunned as she is left in the classroom surrounded by staring children who make her feel like a fish in a bowl. At first, she hides in the corner, but the fairy princess gives her paper and some colored pencils, and she draws a picture of Jackson. Later at recess, Ophelia draws a magic hopscotch where she makes a wish, and then her classmates start to play in it too. At the end of the story Ophelia’s family finds a house close to the school. She starts to learn new French words and gets ready to learn to fly.

Hopscotch is a book that highlights the power of a child’s imagination. While Ophelia has no agency about some things–like moving to a new town, going to a new school, and learning a new language–her imagination allows her to have agency about how she makes sense of her life. Ophelia has her own deep feelings; even when her parents tell her everything is okay, she knows it isn’t. She tries wishing on stars, crossing her fingers, and rubbing a stone. She is certain their new home is surrounded by giant rabbits and witches cawing like crows. Her mother tries to encourage her on her first day of school by telling her she will learn to read, write and count. But Ophelia wants to learn how to fly, become invisible, and cast spells to find Jackson. But her new classroom becomes a safe space through the power of a white piece of paper, a rainbow of pencils, and the magic of a hopscotch that Ophelia draws on the playground. Through the game, she connects to her classmates and imagines a more hopeful future.

Marie-Louise Gay, the author and illustrator, based this story on part of her own childhood, one where she moved often and had to learn a new language along the way (in her case, English). Gay’s lived experiences make this book come alive. She creates Ophelia’s world, in words and pictures, as a place that is frightening and wondrous and beautiful. Ophelia’s magical thinking is treated with respect, and she is given the opportunity to solve her own problems, which were not of her making. This is a book that allows readers to see themselves and others when they are powerless and powerful. She wrote about the process of writing Hopscotch in her August 2023 blog post.

The illustrations in watercolor, acrylic, pencil, and crayon are true to Gay’s signature style of illustration. Her white backgrounds allow the characters’ emotions to take center stage. The characters play across the entire page, exuding joy in play or reeling from oversized fear of imagined threats like a giant ogre crossing guard. Her illustrations are full of movement and color, exploring the line between reality and the imaginary world that Ophelia enters.

Hopscotch could be paired with many titles because of the themes in the narrative. Marie-Louise Gay’s Stella series introduces readers to another imaginative and enthusiastic protagonist who experiences a new world like Ophelia. Another book that shows imagination as power in an uncertain world is Lubna and Pebble (Wendy Meddour and Daniel Egnéus, 2019), a thoughtful picturebook depicting a young refugee finding a pebble and turning it into a friend. Hopscotch could be paired with The Year We Learned to Fly (Jacqueline Woodson & Rafael Lopez, 2022), a story of children using their imagination to escape boredom and impatience with each other. Finally, titles like Mustafa (Marie Louise Gay, 2018) and Gibberish (Young Vo, 2022) highlight language learning and can support discussion about strategies language learners can use to communicate with new friends across language barriers.

Marie-Louise Gay is a Canadian illustrator and author who lives with her family in Montreal. She has written and illustrated over sixty books, in both French and English, winning many awards along the way. Her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award several times (Stella, Fairy of the Forest, 2002; Stella, Princess of the Sky, 2004; Any Questions?, 2014) and she won the 2015 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for Any Questions? She has been nominated for both the Hans Christian Andersen and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages and even made into TV shows. Please read more about this extraordinary woman on her website.

Melissa Wilson, Cardiff, Wales

© 2025 by Melissa Wilson