Highly Recommended! BOOZHOO! HELLO! by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley

 

Boozhoo! Hello! 

Written and illustrated by Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley (member 

of Wasauksing First Nation)

Translated by Mary Ann Corbiere (Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory)

Published in 2024

Publisher: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Review Status: Highly Recommended

****

As you see, we are giving this book a 'highly recommended' review. But... 

Some books are delightful! 

I could also say 'delightfully recommended' because it is precisely the sort of book I would have used back when I was teaching kindergarten and first grade, and that I would have read to our daughter when she was little. Most elementary school teachers know this style of book. Questions are posed and answers given in the text but we can answer as we please, in the moment! 

Cast your eyes up to the cover, above, and look at that wolf's smile as it looks over its shoulder. See the joy in its face? That's where the delight is. The style of Pawis-Steckley's art is called Woodland. In an author's note he tells us he began drawing this book for his newborn daughter. As she grew, he shared the art he was creating. She would clap and smile. I read that author's note after I read the book. I had felt something special as I read it, and now that I have read the author's note, I get it. His illustrations are infused with his daughter's clap, and her smile. 

The format for Boozhoo! Hello! is this: on the left side of the double-paged spread is a page filled with an illustration. Facing it is a page of text in large font. Those words, as you might guess by the book's title, are in Anishinaabemowin at the top half of the page and English at the bottom half, as shown below.

This marvelous book begins with a rising sun and moves through a day's journey. On that first page, it is morning in the woods. "What" I imagine myself saying enthusiastically to a group of children, "do you see?" The sun! Flowers! Trees! Someone would say 'there's an animal behind the trees.'  It is the wolf! When we turn the page we see this:

One of my favorite pages is the one with a young otter on its back in the water, splashing, smiling, playing. A dear one in my own family loves otters. I think he's gonna like that page. 

See why I'm so delighted? 

As we near the end of the book, we see a page where three "little ones" (children) are asked what they hear. Turn the page and we see these words:

gookookoo debtaagzit

dbaajmat dbikak?

Shhh! Mbe nbaak!

Nahaaw, gookookoo.

Gga-waabmin.

an owl hooting

goodnight?

Shhh! It's time to sleep 

now.

Goodnight, owl. 

Imagining myself again, reading that last page in a quiet voice and pointing out the moon, the stars, the owl's closed eyes...  

Highly Recommended: NAVAJO CODE TALKERS by Danielle C. Burbank

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Navajo Code Talkers

Written by Danielle C. Burbank (Diné)

Published in 2024

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Review Status: Highly Recommended

****

I love that Danielle C. Burbank (Diné) opens her book, Navajo Code Talkers, with the word Yá'át'ééh! It signals that we're going to learn about the Code Talkers from someone for whom this is not a subject. Instead, it is her family's life.

On that first page, she tells us her grandfather served as a Code Talker in the US Marines, that the Navajos refer to themselves as Diné (it means "the People"), and that readers will learn about Diné culture, language, and lifeways. 

At the bottom of that page is a photo of Burbank and her grandfather, Deswood R. Johnson, Sr. 

Later, you'll see photos of her daughter and her great grandmother. What we are fortunate to have in this book, is information rooted in her family, her tribal nation, and its history. Earlier this week I wrote about Olympic Gold Medal winner Billy Mills, and that in his book, he tells us that his Native ancestors didn't give up when odds were against them. Their steadfast way mattered to Billy Mills. I see that 'didn't give up' attitude throughout Navajo Code Talkers. 

Because this book is from an insider's perspective, we learn about how Diné culture shapes their way of being in the world and how it shaped how the Code Talkers became who they are and how they persevere when odds are against them. Burbank tells us about kinship and how that mattered, and matters. 

She introduces us to several Diné Code Talkers and their experiences with, for example, boarding school. On page 23, we meet Samuel Tom Holiday, who talks about his older brother, Henry, and how Henry helped Samuel prepare for boarding school. Teachers who are providing students with information about boarding schools will find his story compelling. 

I particularly like the photo on page 10, showing Diné school children reading a signpost at Dream Diné School in Shiprock, New Mexico. Words on the signpost are in their language. Each one points to their sacred mountains. But, as I read on, I find that Burbank does an excellent job of making readers understand that the Code Talkers are not simply a group of Marines. She humanizes them--pulling them from mythical status as vital to a war effort--to a place of knowing them as parents and grandparents whose parents and grandparents had been through a lot, and persevered. 

There's a lot in this book meant for fourth and fifth graders that most people haven't learned. By that, I mean people should read it, regardless of age. You can order it directly from the publisher. I got an e-copy for a few dollars. 

I'm grateful to Burbank for all she did to make this book available to all of us, Native or not. Others are, too. Her nation's library hosted her for a reading a few days ago. And take time to read Diné author writes Navajo Code Talkers book for elementary school readers in Source NM.