Saturday, June 23, 2018

picture books (round 5) mostly Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal

Nibling turned 2 today!

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People keep sharing with me links to lists of multicultural picture books and similar, which I appreciate the thought behind (it is Known that I am reading lots of picture books to select ones to buy for the nibling), but at this point I have heard of (if not read) most all the books that show up on those lists.

So I was so pleased to come across Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" where I had heard of almost none of the books AND at-a-glance it appeared to be a diverse author pool. I also liked that its categories were ones I wouldn't necessarily have thought of -- most touching, most charming, best surprise, best family, best adventure, best history, funniest, most clever, best on creativity, best concept, best (auto)biography, most beautiful, best nature/outdoors, best read aloud, most exuberant/fun, most powerful, best friendship/kindness, best design, best bedtime.

So I kicked off my 2018 picture book reading with that (as if I didn't already have ~150 picture books on my to-read list...). And then got sidetracked by other things and slowly made my way through 7 of Lê‏'s 19(!) categories. I didn't actually love a lot of them, but here are some I did:

I also learned about Inhabit Media -- an Inuit-owned publishing company -- and proceeded to interlibrary loan most every picturebook I could get my hands on. [Note: I am shifting from using the term "folklore" to "traditional stories" after reading this post on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL).]

  • The Raven and the Loon written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Kim Smith [traditional story]
  • Ava and the Little Folk retold by Neil Christopher and Alan Neal & illustrated by Jonathan Wright [traditional story]
  • Lesson for the Wolf written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Alan Cook [traditional story]
  • The Walrus Who Escaped written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Anthony Brennan [traditional story]
  • Ukaliq and Kalla Go Fishing written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Amanda Sandland [anthropomorphic animal story]
  • Hurry Up, Ilua! written & illustrated by Nora Helen Hicks [anthropomorphic animal story] mostly for the illustrations
  • Leah's Mustache Party written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Charlene Chua
And I went through the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book winners and honorees.
  • I am Dreaming of... Animals of the Native Northwest written by Melaney Gleeson-Lyall & illustrated by Mervin Windsor, Maynard Johnny Jr., Eric Parnell, Ernest Swanson, Ben Houstie, Paul Windsor, Allan Weir, Terry Starr, Nicole LaRock, Simone Diamond, and Francis Horne Sr. [2018 Honor Book] [board book] I love these illustrations!
  • Little You written by Richard Van Camp & illustrated by Julie Flett [2016 Best Picture Book] [author is Tłı̨chǫ, illustrator is Cree-Metis] [board book] brb, buying copies of this for every baby
  • Caribou Song written by Tomson Highway & illustrated by John Rombough [2014 Best Picture Book] [Cree; author is full-blooded Cree and illustrator is Chipewayan Dene] for the illustrations

And I ended up checking out more recommendations of books by and about Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal peoples. (Some sidebar reading on terminology: "Natives of the Hawaiian Islands are not Indigenous People, They’re Aboriginal" & "A Note on Terminology: Inuit, Métis, First Nations, and Aboriginal" -- the latter is Canadian and is adapted from the Report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.)

I started doing some searching for Aboriginal Australian picturebooks, and I found a 2013 blogpost "Top Ten Indigenous-authored Children’s Books," but plugging the titles into WorldCat I found that most of them were only in Australian library systems :( (Though it was interesting seeing which non-AUS/NZ libaries had some of them -- Singapore, Japan, Canada, a few places in the US.) I wonder what other quality kidlit I'm missing out on due to its not being published much outside its country of origin (not to mention, of course, the stuff that isn't translated into English #MonolingualProblems), which I'm again reminded of when I come across stuff like Betsy Bird's "Board Books 2018: What We’ve Got Here Is an Oddly Strong Year."

In doing searches to purchase copies of books that weren't in my regional library networks, I learned that there are more Native publishing companies/bookstores than I had realized/expected -- the ones I have come across in my specific searches are below, but I know this isn't even a complete list:

When my copy of Shanyaak'utlaax: Salmon Boy (the 2018 American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award Best Picture Book) arrived in the mail (I ordered a copy because none of my regional library networks had a copy), I showed it to my housemate and she said, "Are you still going through books for your [nibling]?" I said, "Yes. The kid isn't even 2 years old yet, there are many years to go!" I have such a backlog of books I've "shelved," and I keep coming across more (like Betsy Bird's Caldecott and Newbery predictions, which while rarely accurate, contained almost entirely books I hadn't previously encountered).

February is Black History Month, and March is Women's History Month, so there were some kids' books that came up on recommendation lists relevant to that (plus books I saw at the Peabody Essex Museum gift shop). I didn't love any of them, but some fairly good ones are:

There was also The Conscious Kid Library's "13 Recommended #OwnVoices Reads for Ramadan." I read most of the ones I hadn't read already, and of those new-to-me ones, these were my favorites:

Plus, of course, picturebooks I just happened to come across:

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In total I've read ~176 kids' books this six-month period.

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