2008 Selections

Christmas with a Lakota trick!

A traditional Native American character gets a modern update in this charming Christmas tale.

On Christmas Eve, Coyote wants to find some people to trick out of a hot meal. Sneaky Coyote is known in the Native American tradition as the Trickster. He knows that there's one character people can't refuse on Christmas Eve: Santa Claus! Using straw for a jolly belly and wool for his Santa's beard, the Trickster fools a family into welcoming him to their Christmas meal. But just when he thinks he's gotten away with his ruse, taking their food and leaving the family with nothing, he's foiled by a strange occurrence. Could it be a Christmas miracle?

Coyote's antics, beautifully told and illustrated by S. D. Nelson, will delight readers, and his eventual comeuppance just in time for Christmas makes this a perfect holiday tale.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 6 to 9

Additional Information
40 pages | 9.50" x 10.50"

Dazzling inventions from the far north. 

Today's Arctic communities have all the comforts of modern living. Yet the Inuit survived in this harsh landscape for hundreds of years with nothing but the land and their own ingenuity. Join authors Alootook Ipellie and David MacDonald as they explore the amazing innovations of traditional Inuit and how their ideas continue to echo around the world. 

Some inventions are still familiar to us: the one-person watercraft known as a kayak retains its Inuit name. Other innovations have been replaced by modern technology: slitted snow goggles protected Inuit eyes long before sunglasses arrived on the scene. And other ideas were surprisingly inspired: using human-shaped stone stacks (lnunnguat) to trick and trap caribou. 

Many more Inuit innovations are explored here, including:

• Dog sleds
• Kids' stuff
• Shelter
• Food preservation
• Clothing
• Medicine.

In all, more than 40 Inuit items and ideas are showcased through dramatic photos and captivating language. From how these objects were made, to their impact on contemporary culture, The Inuit Thought of It is a remarkable catalog of Inuit invention.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended Ages: 10-12.

B.C. Science Supplementary Resource: Gr.3- Physical Science 

B.C. Science Supplementary Resource Gr.4- Life Science

This book is a part of the We Thought of It series, a series which takes readers on a fascinating journey across the world's second largest continent to discover how aspects of its culture have spread around the globe.

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

Maintaining the Dene storytelling tradition of passing along the teachings to their children, John Blondin relayed the story of The Legend of the Caribou Boy as he heard it from his father, George Blondin a respected Elder and storyteller. Now written down in dual language the legend is passed on to you. Discover one small part of Dene history and the lessons that have been passed on for generations.

A young boy is having trouble sleeping at night. he is being called to fulfill his destiny, a destiny which lives on today in the traditions and culture of the Dene people and their relationship to the caribou and the land on which they live.

The multimedia CD included allows readers to hear and see the Dogrib legend in Dogrib and English on a Mac or PC computer or insert it into a CD player to listen to the story in either language.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 6 to 8.

Additional Information
40 pages | 10.00" x 8.00"

A beautiful and visionary book, Ancient Thunder celebrates wild horses and the natural world of the prairies. Using an extraordinary technique, Leo Yerxa, an artist of Ojibway ancestry, makes paper look like leather, so that his illustrations seem to be painted on leather shirts. The art is accompanied by a rich song of praise for the wild horses that came to play such an important role in the lives of the First Peoples. 

Years in the making, the book is truly a work of art — one that reflects Yerxa's sense of nature and the place of the First Peoples within it.

Awards

• In 2008, Ancient Thunder was the award recipient for First Nation Communities Read.
• Winner of the Governor General's Award

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 and up (Grades k and up)

Curriculum Connections: Language Arts, Visual Arts

Additional Information
40 pages | 8.30" x 10.80"

"Many years ago, when the world and I were younger, my family defied the government."

A boy will never forget witnessing a forbidden Potlatch. In 1935, a nine-year-old boy's family held a forbidden Potlatch in faraway Kingcome Inlet. Watl'kina slipped from his bed to bear witness. In the Big House masked figures danced by firelight to the beat of the drum. And there, he saw a figure he knew. Aboriginal elder Alfred Scow and award-winning author Andrea Spalding collaborate to tell the story, to tell the secret of the dance.

Educator Information
"This story tells of a time when potlatches, ceremonial dancing and the wearing of regalia and masks were forbidden by Canadian law. A young boy, based on Judge Alfred Scow's boyhood story, witnesses the last secret potlatch of this community before the threat of imprisonment caused them to stop dancing." - FNESC, "BC First Nations Land, Title, and Governance"

Additional Information
32 pages | 9.00" x 9.00"

The Gathering Tree is a beautifully illustrated children's book about HIV/AIDS. Written by award-winning First Nations author Larry Loyie and co-author Constance Brissenden, it is a gentle, positive story of a First Nations family facing HIV.

After 11-year-old Tyler and his younger sister Shay-Lyn learn their favorite cousin Robert has HIV, they discover that knowledge brings understanding and self-awareness. Aspects of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional health are addressed.

Author Larry Loyie was born in Slave Lake, Alberta. He spent his early years living a traditional Cree life and treasures the lessons he learned from the elders. He went to residential school from the age of 10 to 14, then began his working life. Larry returned to school later in life to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a writer. He received the 2001 Canada Post Literacy Award for Individual Achievement (British Columbia). In 2003, Larry was the first First Nations writer to win the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for his first children's book As Long as the Rivers Flow. Co-author Constance Brissenden BA, MA is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of 14 books of travel and history. In 1993, Constance and Larry formed Living Traditions Writers Group (www.firstnationswriter.com) to encourage First Nations people to write about their traditions and stories.

Illustrator Heather D. Holmlund has roots in the northern town of Fort Frances, Ontario, where she grew up. Her source of artistic vision has always been the spiritual essence of the Canadian landscape and its people. Heather attended York University in the visual arts program, before making her home in Pickering, Ontario. She is the award-winning illustrator of As Long as the Rivers.

When Lawrence's father goes overseas with the Canadian Army during the Second World War, the young Cree boy struggles to grow up while wrestling with the meaning of war. With Papa gone, Mama raises the children alone. Traditional foods like wild meat and fish are scarce and many other foods are rationed. Angry about the changes and confused about the future, Lawrence misses his father and his teachings about their natural way of life. When army runaways threaten the family, Lawrence's courage and knowledge of traditional skills are called upon to keep them safe. With guidance from his grandfather and encouragement from his grandmother, Lawrence faces his challenges, becoming wiser and stronger, and earning the respect of his elders.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for grades 4 to 9.

This book is part of The Lawrence Series.

Additional Information
44 pages | 7.75" x 10.54"

On a fresh spring day, young Yetsa, her mother and her grand-mother gather to prepare the sheep fleeces piled in Grandma's yard. As they clean, wash and dry the fleece, laughter and hard work connect the three generations. The reader joins this family in an old, but vibrant tradition: the creation of a Cowichan sweater.

Additional Information

The year is 1957, and Bobby lives on the Tsartlip First Nation reserve on Vancouver Island where his family has lived for generations and generations. He loves his weekend job at the nearby marina. He loves to play marbles with his friends. And he loves being able to give half his weekly earnings to his mother to eke out the grocery money, but he longs to enter the up-coming fishing derby. With the help of his uncle and Dan from the marina his wish just might come true.

Educator Information
Themes: contest, family, fishing, Indigenous.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Orca Young Readers series, which are award-winning, bestselling chapter books for ages 8–11. Titles in this series include historical and contemporary stories with age-appropriate plots.

Additional Information
128 pages | 5.00" x 7.50"

This is an endearing story of a young Aboriginal foster child who is given a special gift by his foster mother. Her gift of warmth and thoughtfulness helps her young foster children by encouraging self-esteem, acceptance and love. Written as a simple story, it speaks of a positive foster experience.

Additional Information
16 pages | 8.00" x 6.00" | Paperback