I came to Toronto seventeen years ago with two new, fresh and curious eyes. Slowly and painstakingly I trained my ONE eye to watch the city, people and events around me in the way of native Torontonians… you might say, in the appropriate manner. That’s probably how it should be if you want to fit into the system smoothly. But, for all these years, I kept the OTHER eye as anexternal, immigrant eye, which inevitably sees things differently.With these two distinctive perspectives I observed Toronto, its people, architecture, history, environment, art and culture, and tried to understand and interpret it in my way. I hope that my take on Toronto in this book is like watching a 3D movie with special glasses and two different filters – multidimensional.

Duan Petricic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, but loved to pretend that he grew up in Zemun, an old city located just across the river (and now a part of Belgrade). As a boy he did all the forbidden things that children do, but what Duan loved most was to draw. He started drawing at age four and, encouraged by his parents, he never stopped. He found inspiration in everything, and drawing became a way to communicate with the people around him. Two books that were very important to his childhood were an old encyclopedia with lots of pictures and The Boys from Pavel’s Street by Ferenc Molnár. Early on, he was moved by the drawings found within the encyclopedia. As he grew older, he adored many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Dürer, and Picasso. Duan has been illustrating children’s books for many years. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work, in North America and internationally, including an IBBY Certificate of Honour and an Alberta Book Award for On Tumbledown Hill (Red Deer Press). The Longitude Prize (FSG) was selected as a Robert F. Siebert Honor Book for a Distinguished Informative Book for Children in the US. His beautiful, evocative illustrations for Mattland (2009) by Hazel Hutchins and Gail Herbert garnered Duan the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award from the Canadian Library Association as well as the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. His illustrations for Better Together (2011) by Sheryl and Simon Shapiro were described as “sublime” by Kirkus Reviews. When it came time to reissue Robert Munsch’s Mud Puddle (2012), Duan was Annick’s first choice to reillustrate the classic. The results are a fresh and energetic look that will delight a whole new generation of young Munsch fans. Duan’s latest book, The Man with the Violin (2013), was greeted with rave reviews, including starred reviews in Kirkus and uill & uire. Written by Kathy Stinson, this beautifully evocative picture book tells the true story of world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, who conducted an experiment by anonymously playing his priceless violin in the Washington D.C. subway station. Luckily for Duan, his profession is his favorite hobby and he is happy when at work. To young artists he would give this advice: “Think, think, think, think, draw!” Duan lives in Toronto where he is a regular contributor as an editorial cartoonist in the Toronto Star.

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Rick Salutin has written award-winning drama (Les Canadiens, 1837), fiction (A Man of Little Faith) and journalism (op-ed columnist for The Globe and Mail from 1991-2010 and the Toronto Star since then). He has taught almost continuously, in some manner, since he was about 15, including a course in the Canadian Studies program at University College, the University of Toronto, since 1978.

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