Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?: Celebrating the Seasons

Written by Tyna Legault Taylor

Illustrated by Michelle Dao 

HighWater Press

978-1-774921227

36 pp.

Ages 5-8

May 2025 

 

A boy and his father walk the land through the seasons. With each season, there are new things to forage or fish or gather but always the child asks his Notawe/Baabaa, "Dad, is it time to gather mint?" That mint, a key component in his mother's teas, both cold and hot, drives this child to ask each time they head out to walk the land.

From Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?, written by Tyna Legault Taylor, illustrated by Michelle Dao

The text of Joshua's story is told in English but it is peppered with translations into Omushkegomowin, Swampy Cree, as well as Anishinaabemowin which is Ojibwe. As Joshua learns about the land and its plants and animals, so too do the readers in multiple languages.

 

Although Joshua would love for it to be summer (nipin in Swampy Cree, niibin in Ojibwe) when he can gather mint (katakipanik, gaaminomaagobagak in Swampy Cree and Ojibwe respectively), it is still fall when this story begins. His father (Notawe, Baabaa) reminds him that now it is a time of hunting, gathering Labrador tea (the plant), and fishing for whitefish.

From Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?, written by Tyna Legault Taylor, illustrated by Michelle Dao

As he and his father venture out into the season of winter, Joshua asks again and is reminded of those winter activities like snowshoeing, fishing for lake trout and herring, and gathering cedar branches for tea and for cleansing the indoor air. 

From Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?, written by Tyna Legault Taylor, illustrated by Michelle Dao

When winter turns to spring and the animals and the plants respond to the warming temperatures, Joshua is reminded that it is a time for hunting geese and gathering spruce buds and fishing for lake trout. Alas, it is still not time to gather the mint.

 

But when it finally is summer, Joshua rejoices, not just for the pickerel they'll fish and the sweetgrass, blueberries and cranberries they pick but for that much-anticipated walk with his father and the inevitable mint iced tea–recipe included–that his mother will share with the family.

From Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?, written by Tyna Legault Taylor, illustrated by Michelle Dao

There are many picture books about the seasons, but Tyna Legault Taylor's story has a richness of Indigenous heritage that makes it unique. Tyna Legault Taylor, a member of Attawapiskat First Nation, ensures a completeness of the year of seasons with the abundance of activities that Joshua and his dad enjoy together with the changing weather and circumstances. She brings us to Joshua's traditional lands in northeastern Ontario and to the culture of his Omushkego Cree and Anishinaabe family.

 

Michelle Dao, a Vietnamese Canadian illustrator, gives both a storytelling flavour and a non-fiction character to Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? Her digital artwork conveys the deep relationship between Joshua and his father, as well as the rest of the family, but also details the important elements that are hunted, fished, or gathered through the seasons.

 

Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? is but the first book in the Joshua Learns from the Land series, with the second book set to be released this October. For teachers of young students who are just learning the way seasons work, Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? would be a fabulous and sensitive introduction, with an Indigenous emphasis on language–two languages in fact–and traditional practices of hunting, fishing, gathering and more.

 

• • • • • • •

 

Joshua Learns from the Land

 

Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint?: Celebrating the Seasons (May 2025)

Kokum, Are These Moose Tracks?: Celebrating Fall (October 2025)

Mom, Is It Time for the Spring Niska Feast?: Celebrating Spring (forthcoming)

nipêhon/I Wait

Written by Caitlin Dale Nicholson with Leona Morin-Neilson

Illustrated by Caitlin Dale Nicholson

Translated by Leona Morin-Neilson

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-914-0

24 pp.

Ages 4-7

September 2017

The waiting that happens in nipêhon/I Wait is not of the onerous variety but one that is reserved for companions coming together to complete a task.  It's a part of the process and one gladly done to achieve something worthwhile.

In nipêhon/I Wait, three generations travel by RV to a site where they will pick yarrow flowers and leaves in order to produce a tea used for medicinal purposes. (A recipe is appended to the story.)  It is evident that Nôhkom (grandmother) leads, as daughter and granddaughter wait for her to gather her supplies.  Then, with every action that Nôhkom makes, the narrator and granddaughter follows as does Mom.  When she walks, they walk.  When she takes out her Medicine Bundle and prays, so too do her granddaughter and daughter.  But, when Nôhkom picks, placing the white flowers and leaves in her paper bag, it is only her granddaughter who follows.  Mom is busy blowing the seed heads from what looks like a Tragopogon.  So now Nôhkom and the narrator must wait. Eventually Mom begins to pick the yarrow and the three complete their task, ending the simple story of family coming together with the words, "We are done!"

Caitlin Dale Nicholson, a teacher and student of UNBC instructor of Cree Leona Morin-Neilson, takes her lessons of traditional plant medicines and her observations about generations connecting to create the unique story that is nipêhon/I Wait.  Nôhkom, undoubtedly modelled after Leona Morin-Neilson, is the elder who guides the trio on their journey of collection and family as she did in their first picture book collaboration, niwîcihâw/I Help (Groundwood, 2008).  The story is told in English and Cree (the Y dialect), with the Cree text presented in both standard roman orthography and syllabics, the translation provided by Leona Morin-Neilson.

From nipêhon/I Wait

Written by Caitlin Dale Nicholson and Leona Morin-Neilson

  Illustrated by Caitlin Dale Nicholson

The acrylic illustrations are the work of Caitlin Dale Nicholson who ensures accuracy and reality while going beyond true likeness and sharing the feel of the people and the place.  The patience and connection between the three generations is palpable, even as they work separately and seemingly silently.  Like the few words that tell the story, few words are needed between them.  They understand each other without verbalizing it every moment. It is calming and still intense with kinship.  (Those social media hounds who feel the need to overshare could take a lesson here.)  The strokes of Caitlin Dale Nicholson's paint give movement to the grasses, the trees, the plants, and of course the people and dog.  From Mom rubbing the dog's belly with her foot to the picking of the yarrow, life is going on, telling a story of a bond borne in tradition and affection.

From nipêhon/I Wait

Written by Caitlin Dale Nicholson and Leona Morin-Neilson

  Illustrated by Caitlin Dale Nicholson