HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: The Kodiaks: Home Ice Advantage

The Kodiaks: Home Ice Advantage 

Written by David A. Robertson (Norway House Cree)

Published by Highwater Press (Portage & Main)

Publication Year: 2024

Reviewer: Jean Mendoza

Review Status: Highly Recommended

It's good to see the publication of more stories for young people about Indigenous athletes, both fictional and real. Byron Graves' Rez Ball is a case in point; as Debbie pointed out in her review, basketball is a Thing in many Native communities. In what's currently called Canada, so I'm told, hockey is that Thing. The Kodiaks: Home Ice Advantage is a middle-grade novel about a young Cree hockey player who moves from the reserve to Winnipeg.

Here's what the publisher says:

Everything is changing for 11-year-old Alex Robinson. After his father accepts a new job, Alex and his family move from their community to the city. For the first time in his life, he doesn’t fit in. His fellow students don’t understand Indigenous culture. Even a simple show of respect to his teacher gets him in trouble. Things begin to look up after Alex tries out for a local hockey team. Playing for the Kodiaks, Alex proves himself as one of the best, but he becomes a target because he’s Indigenous. Can Alex trust his teammates and stand up to the jerks on other teams? Can he find a way to fit in and still be who he’s meant to be?

Reason #1: A caring, perceptive Indigenous family. Alex is a likable character who brings kindness and humor to his family and peer relationships. They reciprocate, which gives Alex the strength to adjust to the move, a new school, and a new hockey team. When he experiences a tremendous hurt, compounded by an injustice, his parents and friends stage what he thinks of as an intervention, to persuade him that in fact he should continue with hockey.

Reason #2: Realistically portrayed racist micro-aggressions and full-on aggressions. For better or for worse, trash-talking seems to be part of sports. Anti-Indigenous insults and general ignorance or malice spoken aloud can make competitions a minefield for young Native athletes. Alex experiences several such incidents and must come to terms with how to handle them. He finds the courage to speak up when he needs to -- as when a teammate nicknames him Chief or an otherwise well-meaning coach uses terms like "low man on the totem pole." Still, the time comes when anti-Indigenous hatred directed at him by opposing players and adult fans is too much. Robertson shows how devastating such an experience can be for a child, and how important wise support from adults and peers can be at such times.

Reason #3: Exciting game play descriptions. I don't know much about hockey but Robertson put me right there on the ice with Alex.

Reason #4: First of a series, which the publisher is calling The Breakout Chronicles. Good news for young people, Native or not, who love a high-quality series! We hope teachers and librarians will buy copies of this one for their shelves, and keep their eyes open for the next Breakout Chronicles book.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: THE BEE MOTHER

Imagine an overcast, cold, windy, completely dreary early spring day. A plain brown cardboard envelope arrives from Portage & Main -- it must be a review copy of one of their latest books for young people. Rip the cardboard and what should emerge but a much-larger-than-life portrait of a fuzzy, black and yellow pollen-spotted bumble bee foraging on a bright pink flower! "Spring WILL come," the bee seems to say, "and you'll be seeing me. Here's my story." 

This bee is the creation of Metis artist Natasha Donovan. The book is The Bee Mother by Gitxsan writer Hetxw'ms Gyetxsw (Brett D. Huson). That's Nox Ap in Gitxsanimx.  Here she is on the back of our recliner.

The Bee Mother

Written by Hetxw'ms Gyetxsw (Brett D. Huson) (Gitxsan)

Illustrated by Natasha Donovan (Metis)

Published in 2024

Publisher: Highwater Press

Reviewer: Jean Mendoza

Review Status: Highly Recommended 

AICL has enthusiastically recommended the other six books in the "Mothers of Xsan" series. We've urged educators to use them in science curricula. They blend Indigenous (Gitxsan) knowledge and western science, to follow a year in the lives of different animal species significant to the ecosystem of the Gitxsan homeland: sockeye salmon, grizzly bear, wolf, eagle, raven, and frog. There's growing public awareness of the importance of bees in ecosystems across the continent, so The Bee Mother is a timely and relevant addition to the series.

Nox Ap, the bumblebee queen, is the center of the factual narrative, but the author also spends time on two similar insect species-- yellowjacket wasps (also native to the region), and honeybees, introduced to what's currently called North America by humans but now significant to Gitxsan communities. Teachers are likely to find the distinctions among them helpful, as children often are fearful of stinging insects, and have a lot of misinformation about them.

Like other Mothers of Xsan books, The Bee Mother text is engaging, and centers Gitsxan knowledge and words. Natasha Donovan's illustrations are, as always before, appealing and built on fact, and sometimes incorporate formline figures created the author. It's a very effective collaboration overall. There's a good reason these books garner awards and all kinds of positive recognition.

This series is evidence that good picture books aren't only for younger children. Mothers of Xsan books invite readers to engage with the world outside. By showing connections between Gitsxan life and the animals, they also encourage all readers to think deeply about their own relationships with the other species that make their homes on Earth.

 The Bee Mother would be a great resource anywhere on the continent that bees can be found -- and they're just about everywhere. It would be especially cool to invite students to make observational drawings of bees (whether from careful catch-and-release, or preserved specimens, or photographs). When satisfied with their drawings, they could augment them with accurate colors and textures, moving from basic observation to expressing deeper knowledge and understanding of their subject. 

If you're teaching with The Bee Mother, you and your students might want to check out this Bibliovideo interview with Natasha Donovan. Edited on 6/21/2024 to add a link to a Teacher Guide by Jerica Fraser, available as a free e-book from Portage and Main Press.

 It's been months since that cold gray day when my copy of The Bee Mother arrived, with its promise that Spring would come eventually. Today, my prairie plants are finally in bloom, and outside my front window, a bumblebee buzzes around the sunlit spiderwort and coneflower. I'd better go take a closer look.

 

Highwater Press in Winnipeg, Manitoba