Wild Berries
by Julie Flett (Author)
Tch, tch, sh, sh, tup, tup.
Spend the day picking wild blueberries with Clarence and his grandmother. Meet ant, spider, and fox in a beautiful woodland landscape, the ancestral home of author and illustrator Julie Flett.
Explores the Indigenous tradition of berry-picking through a story in which a boy and his grandmother spend a day in the field.
Wild Berries is the beautiful tale of a young boy who spends a summer day picking wild blueberries with his grandmother. The Metis and Cree are indigenous peoples based across Canada and North America with a rich history and culture. Exploring the important tradition of berry-picking for Metis and Cree people, it also honours a unique, endangered language. Includes a recipe for a delicious blueberry pie.
This book is written in both Enlglish and Cree, in particular the n-dialect, also known as Swampy Cree from the Cumberland House area. Wild Berries is also available in the n-dialect Cree, from the Cross Lake, Norway House area.
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Publishers Weekly
In a quietly perceptive story that includes a handful of key words translated into a Cree dialect, a child accompanies his grandmother into an airy, late summer forest to pick wild blueberries. "Grandma likes sweet blueberries ininimina, soft blueberries, juicy blueberries. Clarence likes big blueberries, sour blueberries, blueberries that go pop in his mouth." Throughout their excursion, Clarence and his grandmother observe woodland animals, including a spider ("kokom-minakesis") spinning its web, a fox ("makesis"), and birds ("pinesisak"). Flett (Owls See Clearly at Night), a Cree-Metis author/artist, offers loose watercolor and collage artwork that combines slate tones with red accents, including the grandmother's skirt, the birds' breasts, and a ubiquitous, low-hanging sun. Abundant white space creates a free and uncluttered landscape; the simple, concrete descriptions, reiterated through the use of Cree words ("Clarence and his grandma pick blueberries for a long time konesk"), provide a sense of composure and calm. Includes a recipe for wild blueberry jam and a pronunciation guide. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Julie Flett is a Vancouver-based Metis and Cree artist and illustrator who incorporates photography, drawing, and painting into her practice. Born in Toronto, Julie has spent much of the last two decades in Western Canada. She began her studies in textile design at the Alberta College of Art. Following two years of studio at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, she completed a Fine Arts degree at Concordia University in 1997. Returning to Vancouver she worked as a coordinator for a visual communication program for First Nations and was involved with a range of advocacy and support work for women in Vancouver's Downtown East Side. Julie was the recipient of the Canadian Native Arts Foundation Visual Arts Acquisition Program in 1993, and was a finalist for two BC Book Prizes in the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize category for her illustration work on the book The Moccasins, authored by Earl Einarson (2004) and Zoe and the Fawn, authored by Catherine Jameson (2007). Zoe and the Fawn was awarded a Medal in the category of Multicultural Picture Book in the 2007 Moonbeam Children's Books Awards. Julie has a long-held interest in folk tales, trickster stories and picture books. Owls See Clearly at Night (2010, Simply Read Books), was nominated for the 2010 GG Awards, Children's Literature - Illustratiol, winner of the 2010 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award, IBBY; First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) 2010 Nominated Title, 2010 Honorable Mention for the 2011 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award Shortlist; Winner of the 2011 Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize, BC Book Prizes; and an Alcuin Society Book Design Awards Honor Book.
JUV050000 - Juvenile Fiction | Cooking & Food
Bilingual
Cree Indians
Berries
Cree language materials
