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Kids and YA
All Books in this Collection
Showing all 13 results
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Dipnetting with Dad
$19.95BUMP, BUMP — SLAP, river sockeye salmon are pulled onto shore!
Set in the beautiful landscape of the Cariboo Chilcotin region, Dipnetting with Dad is a delightful and colourful story of a father teaching his son the Secwepemc method of fishing known as dipnetting. Together they visit the sweat lodge, mend the nets, select the best fishing spot and catch and pack their fish through rugged bush back to the family home for traditional preparation. In his first book, Williams Lake IndianBand member Willie Sellars captures family values, the importance of storytelling, community living and coming of age in one of BC’s oldest cultures. Debut artist Kevin Easthope’s contemporary and dynamic illustrations bring the characters to life as they jump off the page and pull you into their world.
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Emma’s Gift
$16.00Emma wants to participate in her community’s annual ‘King’s Day’ celebration that is held every year on January 6th. She loves to see the gifts that are given and hear the stories people tell when they visit. Her mother, however, feels that Emma is too young. When Emma’s grandmother hurts herself, Emma reluctantly agrees to help. In helping her grandmother prepare and serve her King’s Day meal, Emma discovers the meaning behind this special day. ‘King’s Day’ is about celebrating Christ’s birth and the Three Wise Kings who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts on this holy day. Emma learns that ‘King’s Day’ is not only about exchanging gifts, it’s also about helping family and friends by giving one’s time. Beautifully illustrated by Jay Odjick.
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How the Robin Got Its Red Breast
$12.95These traditional teaching legends come straight from the oral traditions of the Sechelt Nation. Simple enough to be understood by young children, yet compelling enough for adults, they are gentle, beautifully presented cautionary tales. You’ll want to read them again and again – and you’ll learn a few words of the Shishalh language while you’re at it. Charlie Craigan is a young Sechelt artist who works in a tiny studio set up in his bedroom. He studied traditional wood carving with Sechelt Nation carvers, but learned to draw and paint by studying books.
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Keeshig and the Ojibwe Pterodactyls
$10.00On a hot summer day, a young Anishinabe boy visits the shores of Gitchee Gumee with his mother. Nanaboozhoo, their teacher, is before them, presenting himself as a mass of land that stretches across the horizon. As they visit, Keeshig tells his mother about what he calls “the Ojibwe pterodactyls” that live with Nanaboozhoo. He talks about their hunting and what they like to eat. At the end of the story, Keeshig surprises his mom by sharing that the Ojibwe pterodactyls are indeed the thunderbirds and that they are the heartbeat of Nanaboozhoo. Keeshig’s mom is so happy and grateful to hear his story and gives him a big hug, letting him know that he is her heart.
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Lightfinder
$22.00Lightfinder is a YA fantasy novel about Aisling, a young Cree woman who sets out into the wilderness with her Kokum (grandmother), Aunty and two young men she barely knows. They have to find and rescue her runaway younger brother, Eric. Along the way she learns that the legends of her people might be real and that she has a growing power of her own.The story follows the paths of Aisling and Eric, siblings unwittingly thrust into a millennia old struggle for the future of life on earth. It deals with growing up, love and loss, and the choices life puts in our path. Love and confusion are in store, as are loss and pain. Things are not always what they seem and danger surrounds them at every turn. Will Raven’s mysterious purposes prevail? With darkness closing in how will they find the light to guide them? Will Aisling find Eric in time?
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Mayuk the Grizzly Bear
$12.95These traditional teaching legends come straight from the oral traditions of the Sechelt Nation. Simple enough to be understood by young children, yet compelling enough for adults, they are gentle, beautifully presented cautionary tales. You’ll want to read them again and again – and you’ll learn a few words of the Shishalh language while you’re at it. Charlie Craigan is a young Sechelt artist who works in a tiny studio set up in his bedroom. He studied traditional wood carving with Sechelt Nation carvers, but learned to draw and paint by studying books.
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My Indian
$16.95***2022 ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS: APMA BEST ATLANTIC-PUBLISHED BOOK AWARD – SHORTLIST***
***2022 BMO WINTERSET AWARD – LONGLIST***
***2022-2023 HACKMATACK AWARD: ENGLISH FICTION – SHORTLIST***
***2022 IPPY AWARDS: MULTICULTURAL FICTION: JUV/YA – SILVER***
In 1822, William Epps Cormack sought the expertise of a guide who could lead him across Newfoundland in search of the last remaining Beothuk camps on the island. In his journals, Cormack refers to his guide only as “My Indian.”
Now, almost two hundred years later, Mi’sel Joe and Sheila O’Neill reclaim the story of Sylvester Joe, the Mi’kmaw guide engaged by Cormack. In a remarkable feat of historical fiction, My Indian follows Sylvester Joe from his birth (in what is now known as Miawpukek First Nation) and early life in his community to his journey across the island with Cormack. But will Sylvester Joe lead Cormack to the Beothuk, or will he protect the Beothuk and lead his colonial explorer away?
In rewriting the narrative of Cormack’s journey from the perspective of his Mi’kmaw guide, My Indian reclaims Sylvester Joe’s identity.
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Nutaui’s Cap
$22.95A moving story of protest and determination, Nutau’s Cap tells of a young Innu girl, Nanas. The low-level flying of NATO supersonic jets disrupts her family’s traditional way of life, and endangers both them and the wildlife they depend upon, so Nanas’ father and the other members of the Sheshatshiu community decide to protest by occupying the military’s runways. Nanas is proud and eager to join in the social action, but then her father is arrested. Nanas has little to comfort her except his well-worn ball cap, and the promise of the land itself that the resilience, wisdom, and strength of the Innu people will one day triumph.
This true account of one small moment in the years-long struggle of the Innu people against NATO and the Canadian government brings to light the on-going fight for Innu rights on their own unceded land. Author Bob Bartel, an activist and volunteer, participated in the efforts to stop those NATO practice flights; he learned Nanas’s story from her aunt and has Nanas’s permission to tell the story. Bartel writes with care, simplicity, and deep awareness; he portrays with both power and subtlety the struggle as seen from a child’s perspective.
Illustrations by acclaimed Innu artist Mary Ann Penashue capture the gentle relationship between Nanas and her father, and highlight the beauty and dignity of her people’s culture. Her blending of traditional imagery with modern technique offers a visually rich and compelling accompaniment to Bartel’s text.
Nutau’s Cap has been translated into two dialects of Innu-aimun, both of which appear alongside the English. Some Innu-aimun words are also integrated into the English text; a glossary is provided. A map of the locations and a historical afterword, offering further context, are included as well.
This book is a co-publication with Mamu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education.
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Salmon Boy
$12.95In Salmon Boy: A Legend of the Sechelt People, a young boy is captured by a Chum salmon and brought to the country of the salmon people-a dry land beneath water where “the salmon people walked about the same as people do above the sea.” The boy lived with them for one year, and his captivity becomes a source of learning that will ensure the survival of his own people.After accompanying the salmon people on their run, the Sechelt boy hops out of the river and returns home to teach everything he has learned to his people who, from that time forward, treat the salmon properly and always have enough to eat. The salmon people, now respected by the humans, happily “give their rich flesh to feed the people of the land.”This beautiful story is accompanied by black and white illustrations of the boy and his adventures. Though written especially for children, Salmon Boy, with its simple message of responsibility and respect, will appeal to all ages.
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Size of a Fist
$12.95Living in a small working class town has never suited Addy, so after a summer working as a janitor at the local hospital, she is more than ready to move to the city. When the night before her move finally arrives, Addy’s bags are packed, she has visited all her favourite spots one last time, and she has even attempted to make amends with her single mother. Her rough-around-the-edges boyfriend Craig, however, wants to make their final night in town one to remember, so they head out to the cemetery with friends for one last party.
At the cemetery, Addy notices a boy named Jonas hovering in the bushes. The rest of her friends think he is eavesdropping, but Addy knows the younger teen is visiting his recently deceased mother’s grave. When a game of chicken escalates and Jonas is struck by the truck Addy and her friends are driving, guilt causes Addy to feel responsible for healing the boy’s injuries and his grief, and she vows to help him escape his violent home. As their lives become further intertwined, Addy realizes her connection to Jonas is more than platonic, and she must decide whether she wants to leave for the city with Craig or follow her heart down another path.
Size of a Fist is a dark, gritty novella about growing up in difficult circumstances where abuse and hopelessness are ever-present. The suggestion of violence hovers beneath the surface of every relationship in this harsh tale of self-preservation and personal discovery. Addy must navigate her entry into the cruel world of adulthood alone, discovering along the way the sacrifice involved in truly following her heart and taking responsibility for her actions. This gripping thriller exposes the hearts of its teenage dreamers as they attempt to outrun the law and their respective pasts.
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Stone Gift, The
$18.00Sixteen-year-old D.J. awakens from a coma with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. All he knows is that he was severely beaten and his face is disfigured. D.J.’s grandmother places an unearthly stone necklace around his neck and he begins to recover at a rapid pace. When D.J. has visions about a boy named Jeff and his friend Tim, he starts to piece together the events that landed him in the hospital. The Stone Gift is a tale about standing strong in the face of gang violence while embracing friendship, love, family, and even magic, in order to heal.
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The Girl Who Loved the Birds
$15.95A story for children by Kwantlen storyteller and award-winning poet Joseph Dandurand.The Girl Who Loved the Birds is the third in a series of Kwantlen legends by award-winning author Joseph Dandurand, following The Sasquatch, the Fire and the Cedar Baskets and A Magical Sturgeon.Accompanied by beautiful gouache illustrations by Kwantlen artist Elinor Atkins, this tender children’s story follows a young Kwantlen girl who shares her life with the birds of the island she calls home. Collecting piles of sticks and moss for the builders of nests, sharing meals with the eagles and owls, the girl forms a lifelong bond with her feathered friends, and soon they begin to return her kindness.Written with Dandurand’s familiar simplicity and grace, The Girl Who Loved the Birds is a striking story of kinship and connection.
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The Marrow Thieves
$16.95Winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award (Young People’s Literature – Text)
Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize
Winner of the 2018 Sunburst Award
Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature
Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams.
Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden – but what they don’t know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.