Highly Recommended: WE WEAVE by Daniel W. Vandever and Deonoveigh Mitchell

We Weave

Written by Daniel W. Vandever (Diné)

Illustrated by Deonoveigh Mitchell (Diné)

Published in 2024

Publisher: South of Sunrise Creative

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Review Status: Highly Recommended

****

Why am I so pleased with this book? It hits all the key points in books I recommend:

• Native author
• Native illustrator
• Set in present day
• Tribally specific content
• Includes Native language(s)

But there's more to say! As I write, it is baseball season so I'll use a baseball phrase: It's a home run! We Weave is a home run. Vandever and Mitchell hit a homer! 

Earlier today a friend was telling me about the Native information her child is getting in school. It sounds like the school they go to is not hesitating to teach middle school children about boarding schools. That's a topic that we ought to see in all educational materials about Native people. I wonder, though, if my friend's school is also making sure children learn that we're still here and that we use technology much like the devices they themselves use? A cell phone features prominently in We Weave. I also recommend you read Laurel Goodluck's picture book, Forever Cousins. In it, two cousins use their phones to stay in touch.

We Weave is one of many picture books that can help with that teaching. (Note here that I encourage everyone to read picture books by Native writers and illustrators, no matter how old you or your child are! Mostly likely, none of the content you received in school depicted us as people of the past and fails to show us as people of the present day who know who we are as citizens or tribal members of our specific, unique nations.)

Let's start by looking at the cover. That's a grandmother sitting at a loom. She's gazing at a child who is holding a phone. See the emoji's above the phone? Nice touch! Those are first impressions but look closer. See the child's hairstyle? And moccasins, and the loom the grandmother is weaving on? These are most definitely specific to the Diné people. 

As you open the book you see the dedication page that says, in part, "be proud of who you are, where you're from, and where you're going." Many parents say that to their children but that dedication includes words in Diné. Beneath the dedication are three terms you'll see as you read the book. Masaní (Grandmother), Shiyázhí (My Little One), and Dzil Yáázh (Little Mountain). 

The story begins with Masaní reading a letter that says school is going virtual. How many of you got letters like that when the pandemic took over? Shiyázhí replies that he doesn't have a computer. All he has is a phone. He's sitting on the couch. Above/behind him are photographs on the wall of someone who was (or is) in the service. In Native homes across the country you'll find framed photos like those. Native people serve in the US armed service at a high rate. Including those photos behind Shiyázhí is an especially nice touch that reflects reality. 

His grandmother replies "We weave to get what we need" and that kicks off the story Vandever and Mitchell give us. Masaní describes all the steps she goes through to weave. She intends to sell the rug to get enough money to buy a computer. Shiyázhí uses his phone to document what they do. 

The grandmother is weaving a rug, and her grandson is weaving a story!

As they near the first day of school, she's disappointed. She hasn't finished in time to actually sell the rug herself and thinks they can't buy a computer, but her grandson has used his weaving to sell her rug. His weaving is videos of all she did to make the rug--and his weaving went viral. Together they have worked to get the computer. Together, they've been weaving. Hence, the 'we' in We Weave. 

I really like this book! It was on AICL's 2024 year-end list but I ran out of time to post a review in 2024. As always, I recommend you flip to the Author's Note to learn from Vandever. He tells us things most textbooks do not. And he provides a "Caution with Technology" note, too. As more children use phones, the adults in their lives can clamp down in punitive ways, and/or they can teach them about online safety. I'm glad to see Vandever's note. 

Get a copy of We Weave and ask for it at your library!  

Highly Recommended: Yáadilá! Good Grief! More to say about this wonderful book!

Back in January, I did a first-look 'highly recommended' post about Yáadilá!: Good Grief! I heaped praise on the way Laurel Goodluck and Jonathan Nelson presented the story. At the end of that post, I said I'd be back with more to say. So here we go! 

In that post, I was especially taken with "Helpful Narrator" -- a character that proclaims on the first very page -- that it will teach readers how to yáadilá using body language. Here's my photo of the first page:

 

See what I mean? Anytime you have felt frustrated, you may have crossed your arms, or put your hands on your hips, or shook your head, rolled your eyes, sighed, or shrugged your soldiers. All of those gestures are the embodiment of frustration. Helpful Narrator tells us how we can use our body to communicate that sense of yáadilá, or good grief. On the facing page, Helpful Narrator goes on to tell you how to say the word. Meanwhile, a significant character in the book comments on Helpful Narrator! I love every bit of this!

In Yáadilá!, that red box is an unseen but very present voice in the book. Why am I going on about this, you may wonder. Because I haven't seen anything like this before. Have you?

Goodluck and Nelson are reaching across a knowledge gap to help you, the person getting ready to read this book aloud, who probably doesn't know any Diné words. Many times when I recommend a Native-authored book, I ask you to flip to the back and read the author's note. The information Native writers share with you is vital. Most schools and universities don't teach what you find in those notes. But with this technique -- Helpful Narrator -- we see a new iteration of an author's note. And its a delight! 

Get the book and see what I mean. Here's the image I used with my first look. Highly recommended! 

Yáadilá! Good Grief! 

Written by Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara)

Illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Diné)

Published in 2025

Publisher: Heartdrum (HarperCollins)

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Review Status: Highly Recommended

Highly Recommended! A first look at Yáadilá!: Good Grief!, Written by Laurel Goodluck; illustrated by Jonathan Nelson

Yáadilá! Good Grief! 

Written by Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara)

Illustrated by Jonathan Nelson (Diné)

Published in 2025

Publisher: Heartdrum (HarperCollins)

Reviewer: Debbie Reese

Review Status: Highly Recommended

****

Back in 2016 I read a comic called The Wool of Jonesy -- and I loved it. Since then I've followed Jonathan Nelson's work. Again and again, his words and art are precisely what I want Native kids to have. Then in 2022, I read Laurel Goodluck's Forever Cousins. Her storytelling hits me like Jonathan's does. Her books are the ones I want all Native kids to have. He did the illustrations for Forever Cousins. If you've participated in webinars I do online, you know that I talk about their book a lot. And now, they're partnered up again in Yáadilá! Good Grief! 

Imagine me opening Yáadilá! Good Grief! Then imagine my smile as I see the sheep in the endpaper art! Something about Nelson's illustrations of sheep appeals to me in ways I can't explain. There aren't any on the cover (shown above) but sheep are a significant part of the story Goodluck and Nelson give to us. On the cover, you see a family (a grandmother, parents, and two children). 

Here's the synopsis:

Bahe and Dezba are helping their grandmother, Nali, move from her sheep camp home to their house. The family is packing up, carrying heavy boxes, and settling into a new life together, which isn’t always easy. At every frustration, they throw up their hands and exclaim, “Yaadila!” Good grief!

Bahe sees that this big change is hardest for Nali. But he has a secret plan. Whatever can he be doing with a bucket of water, all that yarn, and Dezba’s dollhouse?

In this heartwarming and quintessentially Navajo (Diné) story, author Laurel Goodluck (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and illustrator Jonathan Nelson (Diné) together show a big change for an Elder made easier with a creative gesture of love and care.  

In my webinars, I tell participants to go right to the end matter in a book to study the author's notes. Those pages are packed with information that teachers, parents, librarians -- anyone who is going to use the book -- need to fully engage the story.

When you flip to the back of this book to find the Author's Note, the first thing you'll is a large red box with a note (white text on a red background) from the "Helpful Narrator" who says

Shhh. Don't tell Bahe, but I'm sneaking back. Wow, wasn't that a fun story? You learned how to yáadilá. You saw how a little sister could be annoying when you're busy doing something nice for your nali. And how cool was it to learn new Diné words? Now it's that time in a picture book when you learn about the author. The author--

In the midst of that sentence, we see an interruption in black text: "Excuse me? What are you doing here?" and then, the final sentence in the red box:

The author has a few words to share on her own. Yáadilá! I'm really done. Hágoónee'.

And beneath that red box/note from Helpful Narrator, we find the Author's Note. 

We first met Helpful Narrator in the opening pages. There, it tells us (the readers) how to say yáadilá and how to convey it, too, with body language. As soon as I get a hard copy of the book, I'll be back with some screen captures to show you how this all plays out. 

Helpful Narrator's purpose is to speak to us in ways that resonate with me. Within Native communities--and yours, too, perhaps--a reading or storytelling has moments when the reader/speaker steps out of the story to say something. It is a natural way of storytelling. In film, that's called "breaking the fourth wall" and it annoys some people, but I like it because it feels right to me. Storytelling is not strictly a performance! Storytellers might perform but they also engage their audience. That's what Helpful Narrator does in the opening pages, and at the end, too. 

I'll be back with more to say about this wonderful book. Obviously I am delighted with it which means I'm highly recommending that you get it for your public and school libraries, and for your classrooms, and your home library, too!