The book opens with a large Inuit woman swinging her daughter by her arms.
That and the vocabulary is very different from words with which he’s familiar. This book is a peaceful poem to be read without interruption to the melody and both of us are lulled by it. I’ll start reading and then pause at words he’s familiar with so he can say them. My son plopped himself into my lap and handed me Mama, Do You Love Me? Our reading time is usually a joint affair. Last night, he asked for the “Mama book.” Within seconds, all the exhaustion from my overlong work day disappeared. He’s graduated from the vague, “Book” and “’Nother book” to “Mitten book” (the one by Jan Brett), “D book” (in the Moncure alphabet series) and “Foot Book” (by Dr. My son is getting to that age where he asks for books by name. I attempt to counter with books actually written by Indigenous children's author's. I only read this book with my children now, with whom I can have long and repeated conversations about the problems. I try to replicate the suggestions made by teachers in Alaska who are of different cultures I point out the problems in the illustrations and talk about the problem of white people telling Indigenous stories. I feel angry at the publishers who tried to market it as an Indigenous book when published I am angry at myself for believing them (until the internet emerged and I did an MLIS and could research things.) I no longer believe the publisher's early implied claims, needless to say. Reviews I've read by Indigenous teachers say they read the book with their students and point out the problems in the illustrations (multiple Indigenous cultures are represented in one character and imagery is inconsistently applied.)Īs a settler myself, I have strong misgivings about this book. It was fact-checked by University of Montréal. The publisher clearly knew the identities of the two creators was problematic. The illustrator is not only not Indigenous but taught at a residential school (she calls it a boarding school, as white settlers complicit in cultural genocide do.) The narrative is gorgeous and playful I've read it to children in library storytimes and to my own children. I bought this book after first encountering it at the library, where I worked when I was an undergrad student.
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