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English and Cree
Brothers Joe and Cody, along with their parents and Ootsie the dog, live far to the north, too far for most trees, where the lakes, rivers, islands, and hills are covered with snow for most of the year. Through the long winter, the two young boys dance and play the kitoochigan (a much better sounding name for what those of us living further south call an accordion). Then, one... More

English and Cree
Brothers Joe and Cody, along with their parents and Ootsie the dog, live far to the north, too far for most trees, where the lakes, rivers, islands, and hills are covered with snow for most of the year. Through the long winter, the two young boys dance and play the kitoochigan (a much better sounding name for what those of us living further south call an accordion). Then, one spring day while following the ateek (caribou), the family pauses on an island where, on a great rock surrounded by a meadow, Joe and Cody receive a wonderful glimpse of the spirit world.

Told both in English and Cree, this tale by playwright and novelist Tomson Highway of a vanishing way of life might seem too sparsely drawn at first, but it is this very quality that aligns it to the vast scale and rhythm of the North and its peoples. Mythic and poetic, Caribou Song is the first book in a planned trilogy entitled Songs of the North Wind. One imagines reading this story out loud by a crackling fire, a perfect setting to amplify the story's evocative power. Borrowing from the diverse visual worlds of Ice Age cave paintings and French impressionism, illustrator Brian Deines wraps the narrative in a densely luminous northern world. (Ages 4 to 8) --Martha Johnson

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