Illustrated by Elise Gravel
English text by Gaëlle Mollen
North Winds Press (Scholastic Canada)
978-1-0397-0180-9
88 pp.
Ages 6-8
August 2023
Told in the first-person perspective of Melissa–author Melissa Mollen Dupuis–Nutshimit: In the Woods is an introduction to the natural world of the forest as seen through her Innu eyes. She relates how she experiences the forest, activating all her senses and thus taking a "forest bath."
From Nutshimit: In the Woods, written by Melissa Mollen Dupuis, illus. by Elise Gravel |
From Nutshimit: In the Woods, written by Melissa Mollen Dupuis, illus. by Elise Gravel |
With procedurals for making maple syrup, braiding sweetgrass and cooking bannock, Melissa Mollen Dupuis also takes young readers from the forest and into an interactive learning experience, and goes beyond telling and into doing. That's her way of sharing her own experiences as an Innu child–now she is an Innu activist and CBC Radio host–and getting children to really see what she always did.
From Nutshimit: In the Woods, written by Melissa Mollen Dupuis, illus. by Elise Gravel |
Melissa Mollen Dupuis's ideas could have been a dry recounting of her cultural experiences with the forest, but they are not and, with the illustrations from Elise Gravel, there is a playfulness of characters and settings that shift the book from information to true storytelling. The forest becomes a character, not unlike Melissa herself, and Elise Gravel makes them all whimsical, from trees with eyes, a wolverine annoyed by humans, or a hibernating bear asking to not be bothered until spring. She keeps her cartoons mischievous while illuminating, and for a book loaded with cultural and personal significance, that is an achievement.
Take a walk in the woods with Melissa Mollen Dupuis and Elise Gravel and learn about those woods from an Innu perspective. It's revealing, it's heartfelt and it reminds all of us to open our senses to the natural world
🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳
A French-language edition, Nutshimit: Un bain de forêt will also be available in August.
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