Honouring all languages: Cultural competence with diverse youngCanLit

Today's post, the second in seven, continues the series of booklists I compiled for and presented at the Ontario Library Association's Superconference in Toronto recently to help individuals, schools and other institutions become culturally competent.

Today's post will focus on...

Alego
by Ningeokuluk Teevee
Groundwood Books
24 pp.
Ages 3-7
2009
Inuktitut (Inuit)

The Boy in the Attic
by Paul Yee
Illus. by Gu Xiong
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 6-9
1998
Mandarin/Cantonese (Chinese)

Caribou Song/ Atihko Nikamon
by Tomson Highway
Illus. by John Rombough
Fifth House Publishers
32 pp.
Ages 4+
2013
Cree
Reviewed here

The Diamond Willow Walking Stick
by Leah Marie Dorion
Michif trans. by Norman Fleury
Gabriel Dumont Institute
48 pp.
Ages 8-12
2012
Michif (Métis)

Dragonfly Kites/ Pimithaagansa
by Tomson Highway
Illus. by Julie Flett
Fifth House Publishers
32 pp.
Ages 4+
2016
Cree
Reviewed here

The Finding Place
by Julie Hartley
Red Deer Press,
244 pp.
Ages 10-14
2015
Mandarin (Chinese)
Reviewed here

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue from War
by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
99 pp.
Ages 10-15
2011
Vietnamese, English
Reviewed here

Long Powwow Nights
by David Bouchard, Pam Aleekuk, and Patsy Paul-Martin
Illus. by Leonard Paul
Red Deer Press
32 pp.
Ages 8-14
2009
Mi’kmaq

My Two Grandmothers
by Diane Carmel Léger
Illus. by Jean-Luc Trudel
Nimbus Publishing
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
2016
French Acadian, Scottish
Reviewed here

Niwechihaw/ I Help
by Caitlin Dale Nicholson
Trans. by Leona Morin-Neilson
Groundwood Books
24 pp.
Ages 4-6
2008
Cree

No Borders/ Kigliqangittuq
by Darla Evyagotailak  and Mindy Willett
Photos by Tessa Macintosh
Fifth House Publishers
40 pp.
Ages 8-12
2013
Inuktitut (Inuit)

Nokum is My Teacher
by David Bouchard
Art by Allen Sapp
Red Deer Press
32 pp.
All ages
2015
Cree

Norman, Speak!
by Caroline Adderson
Illus. by Qin Leng
Groundwood Books
32 pp.
Ages 4-7
2014
Mandarin (Chinese)
Reviewed here

Racines
by Marianne Ferrer
Monsieur Ed
16 pp.
Ages 4-8
2016
French
Reviewed here

The Secret of Your Name
by David Bouchard
Illus. by Dennis Weber
CD performed by John Arcand
Red Deer Press
32 pp.
Ages 8-13
2009
Michif (Métis)

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey
by Margriet Ruurs
Artwork by Nizar Ali Badr
Orca Book Publishers
28 pp.
All ages
2016
Arabic (Syria)
Reviewed here

The Trouble with Dilly
by Rachna Gilmore
HarperCollins Canada
 162 pp.
Ages 7-10
2009
Hungarian, Punjabi (Indian)

Download the complete booklist here

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey

by Margriet Ruurs

Artwork by Nizar Ali Badr

Orca Book Publishers

978-1-459814905

28 pp.

All ages

October 2016

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey is a very important book on so many fronts.  At face value, it recounts in memorable artwork and text the plight of refugees from Syria, Nizar Ali Badr’s home, or elsewhere, now and forever.  But beyond bringing understanding to the refugee crisis, Stepping Stones is a book of encouragement to those arriving in Canada –the book is a dual-language edition in both English and Arabic–and to those who can contribute to the cause.

This is the story told from the perspective of a young girl, Rama, who recounts life in Syria, from the rooster crowing her family (Mama, Papa, grandfather Jedo and brother Sami) awake, and a breakfast of bread, yogurt and tomatoes, and memories of play and work, school and freedom.

But that was then.And this is now. (pg. 10)

From Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey 

by Margriet Ruurs, art by Nizar Ali Badr

But their freedom is an illusion, and after war comes, there is insufficient food and the bombings, and people begin to leave.

People began to leave our village.
First a trickle, then a stream,
across dusty fields under a burning sun,
a stream driven by hope. (pg. 14)

So too begins Rama’s family exodus, walking until reaching the sea, whereupon they “set sail on the waves of hope and prayer” (pg. 20), arriving on land where the gruelling trek begins again, until they arrive at their future, welcomed by neighbours who communicate with smiles and the sharing of clothes and food and more.

The lucky ones, they call us.
New memories, new hopes,
     new dreams.
Not of war,
but of peace. (pg. 25)

All told in the artistry of Nizar Ali Badr’s stunning arrangements of oddly-shaped and widely-coloured stones, Stepping Stones could be the story of any refugee family: a good life bombarded by war, a demanding and emotional flight from danger, and the arrival to a new life.  Though for each family the path is a unique arrangement of steps, its bearing is always the same: safety and opportunity.  Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey reveals this route with empathy and assurance.

Margriet Ruurs provides an extensive foreward that explains the background of Stepping Stones coming to publication.  She accounts her herculean efforts to contact artist Nizar Ali Badr after viewing his wondrous artwork of stones, about convincing him and Orca Book Publishers to take on the project, and arranging for a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the books to be donated to resettlement agencies.  The task may have been as arduous as that of Sisyphus but the ultimate story of Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey, both within and externally, culminates with promise and purpose, the hallmarks of a good life.

From Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey 

by Margriet Ruurs, art by Nizar Ali Badr