Dippers is that rare book that appeals to both adults and children on several levels at once. Set in 1912 near the Don River in Toronto, the book melds the ordinary and the fantastic in a haunting fiction reminiscent of Chris Van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

Told simply by seven-year-old Margaret, the story conjoins two important and equally mysterious events: the sudden illness of Margaret’s younger sister, Louise, and the influx of strange flying creatures called dippers. Margaret explains that the dippers usually came out of the water of the Don River in hot weather. But this one summer they came right up to where people lived. Her account of the behaviour of the dippers, and the residents’ reactions to them, forms the rambling, non-linear backdrop against which the story of Louise’s sickness and recovery unfolds. Margaret’s laconic narration masks the difficulties of life with a working single mother, and leaves much unsaid.

But the dippers are the core of wonder in the story. Margaret tells of dippers following her down the street, of a dipper that flew into someone’s house, of the dipper Louise claims allowed her to pet it, of dippers attracted to the whistles of “an old hobo” in Riverdale Park. She tells of people driving at night with their headlights off so as not to attract the dippers, and of hanging bells outside to ward them off.

The existence of the dippers is reinforced by the opening illustration of the dipper with its scientific name, and by the author’s preface, in which she claims that Margaret’s story comes from a letter in the City of Toronto Archives. However, the added thrill of the book comes with the dawning realization (which may not come to everyone) that the dippers are fantasy creatures. Barry Moser’s luminous illustrations portray the dippers in detail, giving them a reality that makes them believable. At the same time, his paintings work with the text to portray everyday life in a poor neighbourhood in old Toronto. The result is a delicious mix of the ordinary and the extraordinary.