Browse Books for Kids

Sept 30th has become widely known as National Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada.

This day was chosen as the date for National Truth and Reconciliation Day because September is when many Indigenous children were taken from their families and communities and forced to attend residential schools.

Join Nuttah and Kitchi as they honour and remember the tens of thousands of residential school survivors and the children who did not survive the residential schools.

Written by Indigenous author and educator Sandra Samatte, Ojibwe - Saulteaux - from Skownan First Nation Treaty 2 Territory and illustrated by Julian Grafenauer, Ojibwe from Rolling River First Nation.

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 1 to 4.  

Additional Information
32 pages | Paperback

On the Playground: Our First Talk About Prejudice focuses on introducing children to the complex topic of prejudice.

Crafted around a narrative between a grade-school-aged child and an adult, this inquiry-focused book will help children shape their understanding of diversity so they are better prepared to understand, and question, prejudice witnessed around them in their day-to-day lives and in the media. Dr. Jillian Roberts discusses types of discrimination children notice, what prejudice means, why it's not okay, how to stand up against it and how kids can spread a message of inclusion and acceptance in the world around them.

Reviews
"A heartfelt…tool to provoke conversations about prejudice and bullying."— Kirkus Review, October 2018

"Parents, teachers, and counselors will find this book to be a handy resource for discussing bullying, as it provides credible ways for children (and adults) to view themselves as active upstanders for others."— Booklist, November 2018

Educator Information
The World Around Us series introduces children to complex cultural, social and environmental issues that they may encounter outside their homes, in an accessible way. Sidebars offer further reading for older children or care providers who have bigger questions. For younger children just starting to make these observations, the simple question-and-answer format of the main text will provide a foundation of knowledge on the subject matter.

Themes / Keywords: racism, ableism, sexism, diversity, inclusion, bullying, inquiry-based, discrimination.

Recommended Ages: 6-8

This book is available in French: Et si on parlait des PRÉJUGÉS ?

Additional Information
32 pages | 10" x 8.5" | Paperback

A picture book celebrating Indigenous culture and traditions. The Governor General Award-winning team behind When We Were Alone shares a story that honors our connections to our past and our grandfathers and fathers.

A boy and Moshom, his grandpa, take a trip together to visit a place of great meaning to Moshom. A trapline is where people hunt and live off the land, and it was where Moshom grew up. As they embark on their northern journey, the child repeatedly asks his grandfather, "Is this your trapline?" Along the way, the boy finds himself imagining what life was like two generations ago -- a life that appears to be both different from and similar to his life now. This is a heartfelt story about memory, imagination and intergenerational connection that perfectly captures the experience of a young child's wonder as he is introduced to places and stories that hold meaning for his family.

Awards

• 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature -- illustrated books 
• 2022 Shining Willow Award
• 2022 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award winner
• 2023 Chocolate Lily Award

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Shares and teaches some Swampy Cree words throughout the story.

Notes from the author and illustrator, as well as a glossary of the Swampy Cree words used in the story and a pronunciation guide are included.

This book is available in French: Ligne de trappe.

Additional Information
48 pages | 8.00" x 9.00"

Yu-Rhee, a young Korean girl, wants to know how to tell time using a clock. Her mother tells her a tale from her childhood based on the traditional Korean practice of timekeeping, where the 12 animals of the zodiac are assigned to 2-hour sections of the 24-hour clock. Told from the point of view of a mountain, the story follows a child as they climb the mountainside in search of a plant to heal their ailing mother. The climb is steep, the path wild and the way difficult. The mountain watches the child struggle and calls on the animals that live on the mountainside to help the child, but as sunlight turns to moonlight, each animal claims to be too busy. Ultimately, Once Upon an Hour is a story about determination and teamwork that shows young readers the importance of helping others.

Reviews
“A curious premise with captivating illustrations.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The repetitive text here is soothing in cadence...Pleasing colours, and the winsome expressions on the face of the hopeful child make readers sympathetic to the situation.” — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“Illustrations which are inexplicably special…The timeless and universal message of helping others will resonate with listeners of this story whether young or old. This book needs to be part of an elementary school library as well as pre-school and home libraries. By using animals who are active at different times of the day to teach the concept of time, this folktale is especially memorable as well as useful.” — Must Read Literature

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 3 to 5.

Theme / Subjects: Animals, Time, Zodiac, Timekeeping, Traditional Korean Practices, Determination, Teamwork, Helping Others, Family, Plant Medicine.

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.75" x 10.75" | Hardcover

A collection of authentic Orange Shirt Day books from the founder of the Orange Shirt Day movement, Phyllis Webstad. Package includes four books and three accompanying lesson plans, The Orange Shirt Story, Phyllis's Orange Shirt, Orange Shirt Day and Beyond the Orange Shirt Story.

Educator Information
Includes picture books for children, as well as books for young adults.  Review individual titles for more information about each include:

• The Orange Shirt Story
• Phyllis's Orange Shirt
• Orange Shirt Day
• Beyond the Orange Shirt Story

Additional Information
9.00" x 12.00"

Palluq and Aksaajuq know it is important to help out. See how Palluq and Aksaajuq help their anaana by doing chores around the house. They learn that the work gets done much more quickly when they help each other.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Nunavummi Reading Series, a Nunavut-developed series that supports literacy learning while teaching readers about the people, traditions, and environment of the Canadian Arctic. This is a Level 10 book in the series.

Nunavummi Reading Series books have also been officially levelled using the Fountas & Pinnell Text Level Gradient™ Levelling System. This book's F&P Level is J.

Recommended for ages 6-8.

Curriculum Connections: Personal and social development. This book teaches children about roles and responsibilities and the value of helping out their family members.

Additional Information
24 pages | 8.00" x 8.00" | paperback | colour illustrations

Hop aboard the Peace Train in this picture book adaptation of Cat Stevens’s legendary anthem of unity and harmony in time for the song’s 50th anniversary! With illustrations by New York Times bestselling illustrator Peter H. Reynolds.

“Now I've been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun
Oh, I've been smiling lately
Dreaming about the world as one
And I believe it could be
Someday it's going to come”

Readers are invited to hop on the PEACE TRAIN and join its growing group of passengers who are all ready to unite the world in peace and harmony.

Featuring the timeless lyrics of Cat Stevens’s legendary song and illustrations by New York Times bestselling artist Peter H. Reynolds, this hopeful picture book inspires tolerance and love for people of all cultures and identities.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Additional Information
40 pages | 9.75" x 9.75" | Hardcover 

A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Twelve-year-old Okwaho's life has suddenly changed. While out hunting with his best friend, his friend is kidnapped by marauders from a neighboring tribe. Okwaho barely escapes back to his village where everyone lives in fear of raids and killings: The five tribes of the Iroquois have been at war with each other for far too long, and no one can even remember what it was like to live in peace.

Okwaho seeks only revenge, which will just perpetuate the violence. But before he can retaliate, a visitor with a message of peace, as told in the lore of the of the Iroquois nation, comes to him in the woods. The Peacemaker--a vision in white buckskin with a calm demeanor and soothing words--tells the boy that he can convince even the most warlike leaders of the wisdom of peace. Okwaho joins the legions of others who believe, and is present when the great treaty creating the Iroquois Confederacy is enacted.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Additional Information
160 pages | 5.69" x 8.56" | Hardcover

Can you help Nanuq and Nuka look for colours?

In this interactive book, Nanuq and Nuka explore the world around them and look for different colours. Children can pull up the flap and find the hidden colours!

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 3 and under.

This is an Arvaaq Book. Books in this series are intended for infants and very young children and are designed to help children develop physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language skills.

Dual-language: English and Inuktitut

Additional Information
18 pages | 8.00" x 8.00" | Boardbook

These stories from the Peepeekisis Cree Nation tell of the Little People, Wesuketchuk, and the Sky People, and share the Plains Cree worldview, values, and spiritual beliefs.

“nipakosēyimon ēkā ta-wanihtāhk kinēhiyawātisinaw, tāpitaw awiyak ta-masinahahk ēkwan ta-pīkiskwātahk.” --Eleanor Brass, 1987

“I am hoping that our Indian culture will not be lost, that there will always be someone to write and speak about it. As the treaty reads, ‘As long as the grass grows and the water flows.’” —Eleanor Brass, 1987

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 3 to 12.

Dual-language: English and Plains Cree (y-dialect). 

Pronunciation guide included.

Additional Information
96 pages | 11.00" x 8.50"

Learn about the different plants that grow in the Arctic. Despite the cold climate, many plants grow in Nunavut and have important uses. This book provides information about some of these plants, what they look like, how they grow, and how they are used.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 8 to 10.

This book is part of the Junior Field Guide series. Perfect for learning all about living things in the Arctic! These Junior Field Guides give information and interesting facts about the different animals that live in Nunavut.

Additional Information
32 pages | 10.00" x 7.50" | Colour illustrations and photographs | Paperback

Spinning, flying, crawling, exploding! These plants have places to go. A gorgeous, lyrical exploration of how seeds travel from plant to plant, take root, and grow.

When you think of a plant, you don't think of how it moves. But the feathery seeds of the dandelion fly to other gardens, strawberry tendrils creep, and maple seeds spin. There are many different ways plants move, not only as they grow, but in their quest to reproduce: falling, clinging, floating, burrowing--even exploding!

Fourteen plant journeys are chronicled, but more than sixty species are highlighed in Émilie Vast's fantastic and unique art style. Learn the scientific names for the different ways plants move.

Reviews
"Ten ways that plants move are described with detailed silhouette art and a moderate amount of text. The graphic art stands out beautifully within thin black frames against stark white pages. Bold green lettering and an appropriate plant image decorate each single-page chapter heading. The short chapters begin with a plant introducing itself by its common name. Sometimes a plant also addresses readers directly, as with the strawberry: “You know me well, and you love to eat my sweet, red fruit.” However, most of the plants’ supposed narrations move quickly into scientific explanations, including simple definitions of terms such as calyx, pollination, and samara. (Further definitions occur in the backmatter.) There is enough information contained here that the book will benefit from reading over multiple sittings. It excels as a reference book, especially since the graphic art is so clearly detailed that reluctant or beginning readers will be able to learn a great deal from the illustrations alone. The sequence about plant seeds traveling by animal excrement is amazingly graceful, informative, and subtle—in both words and art. Similarly, clear sequences of frames show such things as a winsome fox carrying and dropping a burr and a water lily’s fruit developing and decomposing. Groupings of 24 cultivated plants by place of origin—albeit stated as incomplete—jar with the omissions of Africa, North America, and Oceania. The few examples of human skin are light-complexioned. Leaf and learn." —Kirkus Reviews

"Even young children understand that seeds grow into new plants, but how do seeds reach the soil they need? Accompanied by crisp, stylized artwork set against a contrasting white background, this informational picture book, originally from France, introduces several ways that seeds disperse. The succinct, descriptive text is divided into sections according to the seed movement (e.g., flying, clinging, or being eaten). Each section, in turn, opens with a single or a few representative plants that explain the physical characteristics of themselves and their seeds in a first-person narrative before explaining the benefits of their seed dispersal process. A maple tree, for example, describes the “light, delicate wings” of its seeds that dry up in the fall into “little helicopters,” detach, and spiral down to the ground. A double-page spread at the end of each section offers a beautiful, visual summary of other plants that rely on the same method for their seeds." —Booklist

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 5 to 8

Additional Information
56 pages | 8.56" x 12.41" | Hardcover

In this charming picture book allegory of the creative writing process, happenstance and weather events symbolize the emotional ebb and flow of writing a poem.

I had a poem in my pocket,
but my pocket got a rip.
Rhymes tumbled down my leg
and trickled from my hip.

Thus begins the journey of a young poet's words out into the world, where they join randomly with other words to form funny riffs and puns all over a busy city street. The child scrambles to capture the loose words and arrange them back into poem form, only to lose them again as a storm swoops in on a rushing wind. Eventually, the words plant themselves in the muddy ground, where they grow into something that might be even better than the original poem: a Poet-Tree.

Not only a fanciful rhyming adventure tale, Chris Tougas's picture book is also a delightful allegory for the creative writing process. Perfect for classroom discussions about the emotional ups and downs of writing, this highly innovative book celebrating poetry and creativity is an excellent choice for National Poetry Month. It also showcases the magic of language and how much fun words can be. High-energy artwork by Josée Bisaillon is so full of words in flight and at play that children can pore over it again and again, and in the final spread, readers can search for rhyming pairs. An afterword discusses National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day. This is a book that adult writers will also appreciate.

Reviews
"This is a whimsical, rhyming story that gives expression to the long frustration and toil that's often part of the artistic process." —Booklist

"This book about wordplay strikes the write balance between silly and sincere."—Kirkus Reviews

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 to 7.

Lexile Code: Adult Directed 
Lexile Level: 570

Additional Information
24 pages | 9.15" x 10.35" | Hardcover 

Lately, seventh-grader Nizhoni Begay has been able to detect monsters, like that man in the fancy suit who was in the bleachers at her basketball game. Turns out he's Mr. Charles, her dad's new boss at the oil and gas company, and he's alarmingly interested in Nizhoni and her brother, Mac, their Navajo heritage, and the legend of the Hero Twins. Nizhoni knows he's a threat, but her father won't believe her.

When Dad disappears the next day, leaving behind a message that says "Run!", the siblings and Nizhoni's best friend, Davery, are thrust into a rescue mission that can only be accomplished with the help of Diné Holy People, all disguised as quirky characters. Their aid will come at a price: the kids must pass a series of trials in which it seems like nature itself is out to kill them. If Nizhoni, Mac, and Davery can reach the House of the Sun, they will be outfitted with what they need to defeat the ancient monsters Mr. Charles has unleashed. But it will take more than weapons for Nizhoni to become the hero she was destined to be . . .

Timeless themes such as the importance of family and respect for the land resonate in this funny, fast-paced, and exciting quest adventure set in the American Southwest.

Awards

• 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 8 to 12.

Family-is-everything theme will resonate with middle graders.

Features a relatable protagonist who fears she doesn't have what it takes to be a hero and a greedy villain who calls to mind challenges that Indigenous people are facing right now.

Cover art by Navajo artist Dale DeForest Ray.

A note from the author: "This one is for my daughter (who is Navajo on her dad’s side) and her cousins and all the Native kids who deserve to be the heroes in their own stories. I hope all kids enjoy it." - Rebecca Roanhorse

Additional Information
320 pages | Paperback

Mother Earth, we come from her, we go to her, without her we wouldn't be here, she gives all of us life and because of her we are all one family. In many segments of Indigenous life we speak of Mother Earth, Father Sky, Grandfather Sun, and Grandmother Moon. Meet Your Family / Gikenim Giniigi'igoog is a rhythmic poem that will enlighten readers on how to view these important figures and share a greater concept of seeing the world as our natural family.

Rencontre ta famille / Gikenim Giniigi'igoog is presented in both French and Ojibway. An additional softcover book written in Ojibway with a phonetics guide is included inside this hardcover book.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 6 to 8.

Dual-language French/Ojibwe book. An additional softcover book in Ojibwe with a language learning guide is included inside the hardcover book.

This book offers a spiritual way of looking at all living things on earth as being connected through Mother Nature.

A teacher lesson plan is available for this work: Rencontre ta famille plan de cours 

This book is available in English and Ojibway: Meet Your Family / Gikenim Giniigi'igoog

Additional Information
28 pages | 10.94" x 8.46"