PaperTigers’ current issue focuses on Canadian aboriginal literature. I’d like to tell you about a quirkily illustrated and humorous aboriginal children’s title called Jenneli’s Dance by Elizabeth Denny, illustrated by Chris Auchter (Theytus Books, 2008). Jenneli is a Metis girl who’s a bit different-looking than her classmates:
She had darker hair and skin and her eyes were an unusual colour. It was as if they could not decide whether to be brown or green.
Jenneli’s one joy in life is doing the Red River Jig — something she has learned from her Grandma Lucee who lives in the small town of Lakeside, Manitoba. One day, Grandma Lucee enters Jenneli into the jigging contest at the Lakeside fair. Jenneli is horrified. Will she do it? Is she up to the challenge?
What I liked most about this book were the illustrations by Chris Auchter. There’s something about the ‘flavor’ of the drawings and the details presented that gives the story a feeling of contemporary aboriginal life. In the illustration of Grandma Lucee’s living room, there’s a picture of Elvis Presley hanging on the wall beside a macrame plant holder dangling from the ceiling. There’s a magazine on the floor by Grandma’s knitting chair called “Inquiring Minds: Elvis Sightings.” When Jenneli chokes on her bannock on hearing the news that her grandma has entered her into a jigging contest, the two are sitting outside at a picnic table with a funny looking bison observing them with a large bird (possibly an eagle?) flapping away into the distance. It’s a Red River sort of scene, all right, done with the right symbols but with a touch of humor.
If you want to read a good aboriginal children’s title to your child at bedtime, I’d certainly recommend Jenneli’s Dance.