Performer Deborah Dunleavy of Brockville, Ontario, has written a crash course in theatre arts for the Grade-2-and-up crowd. Fun, thorough, and accessible, The Jumbo Book of Drama is decorated with Torontonian Jane Kurisu’s clear, dynamic illustrations on every page. For once, here’s an information book for children that isn’t cluttered with sidebars and dizzying graphics!

Dunleavy propels her readers through the process of creating drama in easy stages: isolating movement (mime, clowning, dance theatre), then progressing to sound (puppetry, radio drama), and then putting them together using examples from various genres (melodrama, comedy, tragedy). In each section of the book, Dunleavy dishes up background history, warm-up exercises and games, sample scripts, and tips on improving technique. Finally, she initiates her readers into backstage lore, teaching them to make simple flats and costumes.

The prose style could be fresher: Dunleavy falls back on hackneyed phrases like “let your imagination run wild.” Also, in her attempt to be accessible, she perpetuates common misconceptions about the terms “comedy” and “tragedy.” She overstates, writing, “Comedy is all about making people laugh.” While this is true of stand-up, it is not necessarily true of comedic plays, which are simply ones that end happily. Her definition of tragedy (“Mr. Nice Guy… breaks his neck and dies”) is also flawed; tragedy is not just a sad story but centres on an extraordinary individual whose potential is wasted through a combination of Fate and poor choices: the tragic hero.

Despite these slight reservations, this is a real achievement: a hugely useful book for any aspiring thespian.