Children's Fiction Native Canadian
The Delta Is My Home
- Publisher
- Fifth House Books
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2008
- Category
- Native Canadian
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781897252321
- Publish Date
- Apr 2008
- List Price
- $16.95
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 4 to 8
- Grade: 4 to 8
Description
Tom McLeod is an eleven-year-old boy from Aklavik who is a gifted storyteller heard frequently on CBC Radio North. He is of mixed cultural heritage-Gwich'in and Inuvialuit.
Tom tells us why his home in the Mackenzie Delta is a special place and why he loves to live on the land. He describes how his town floods in the spring and why he loves ratting" (trapping muskrats) and hunting "black ducks" (white-winged and surf scoters) in the Delta.
Readers will learn why these ducks are decreasing in number and how and why they are important to Tom and his people. Tom says, "Northerners have always hunted animals for survival. We are careful about how we use the land. To be good hunters we need to pay attention to what is happening on the land around us-that's why it's important for us to be out there. We are the first to know if the land and animals are changing."
About the authors
Mindy Willett lives in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories. She is a teacher at heart although no longer in the classroom. She first came north to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut in 1987 and most recently taught in Kugluktuk, Nunavut from 1996 to 2000. Mindy stopped being a classroom teacher when she had her son Jack. To remain home as much as possible, she started her own home-based business, writing educational materials.
"Tessa Macintosh is an award-winning northern photographer who raised her family in Yellowknife. In 35 years she has been fortunate to photograph many wonderful northerners and fantastic places across the North. Her photos illustrate the 7 other books in The Land is Our Storybook series, and her work is included in Canadian Shield (2011). She has fond memories of previous visits to Great Bear Lake, beginning 30 years ago, toddler in tow, to photograph Elders making snowshoes."
Editorial Reviews
"The Delta is My Home, is presented in way children will take pleasure in reading. They will be enthralled with the photographs and in the end they will learn a great deal about the culture, family and life of Tom McLeod and the Gwich'in people."
— ForeWord Magazine
"These are positive portraits of northern family life and of child life, cheerful and appealing as well as educational."
—The Toronto Star
"Replete with sharp and attractive full-color photographs. . . These titles provide some useful information for reports and are interesting additions for general reading."
— School Library Journal
"...a valuable introduction to an endangered culture."
— Booklist
"Tom's bouncingly fun personality beams from every page. . . This is an exciting series for helping children, especially those outside the Northwest Territories, appreciate the day-to-day world of their peers."
— Canadian Children's Book News
"(The Delta is My Home) feature a satisfying mix of old and new - traditional and contemporary - in the photographs and text. . . What both photos and text do very well is establish the strong connection between the people in the books and the land upon which they live. . . A book that children (will) choose to read both for pleasure and for information.
Recommended"
— CM Magazine
Librarian Reviews
The Delta Is My Home
This book is the first in a series, The Land Is Our Storybook, that share the culture and history of each of the ten Aboriginal language groups in the Northwest Territories. Tom, an eleven-year-old boy of Gwich’in Inuvialuit heritage, lives in Aklavik, the “Muskrat Capital of Canada”. The delta of the title refers to the Mackenzie River delta. Tom loves to hunt, fish and go out on the land. The book shows the varied life that Tom leads from attending a modern school to shooting a caribou. Included is a detailed glossary. Sidebars include bannock recipes and muskrat push-ups. The colour photographs show striking scenery and a loving family.Co-author Willett, a teacher, has authored the other books in this series.
Caution: There are images of Tom using guns and holding a duck carcass over a fire.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2008-2009.
The Delta is My Home / Ehdiitat shanankat t’agoonch’uu /Uvanga Nunatarmuitmi aimayuaqtunga (This Land is Our Storybook)
What makes Canada a unique nation? For one thing, we are blessed with a multitude of cultures. Many of our citizens arrived in this country quite recently in comparison to our Aboriginal peoples. But in our children’s literature we are only just beginning to truly discover the rich complexity of the culture of our original inhabitants.In my collection I have a children’s book from the 1960s titled The Eskimo Family. The book is an example of many mistakes we need to begin to correct. “The Eskimo” referred to in this not-so-long-ago book might more correctly be Inuit – or Inuvialuit in the western Arctic. We should use the language Aboriginal people choose as we give children’s books a much-needed information overhaul.
I feel privileged to have ‘met’ five books that will help introduce junior readers to contemporary indigenous people’s culture of northern British Columbia and the Northwest Territories. The face of today’s people, as glimpsed in these five titles, is shining, smiling and joyful. One thing is clear in this literature: whatever changes are coming to Aboriginal peoples, respect for their environment still remains a core value. And the language used to talk about the land and water is of vital importance. Too many of them lost sight of the vibrant colours of the country when a European-style education devalued their traditional knowledge and robbed them of their language.
The Land is Our Storybook is a new series focusing on cultures in the Northwest Territories (NWT), with two of the ten books now available from Fifth House Publishers. Northern photographer Tessa Macintosh works with Yellowknife educator Mindy Willet and a different guest narrator for each title. The Aboriginal narrators introduce their precious habitats through legends and personal stories, enhanced by factual insets and sidebars that describe muskrats, bird migration and other topics. In the introductory books to the series, 11-year-old Tom McLeod of Aklavik in the Mackenzie River Delta, and mother Julie-Ann André of Tsiigehtchic, share their love of the land.
For Tom, a young man of Inuvialuit and Gwich’in parentage, the title of the book could be his slogan: The Delta is My Home. “Being on the land with my family is where I get my stories from,” Tom is quoted as saying. “It’s where I’m most happy.” Sometimes when CBC calls for an interview, Tom recounts for radio listeners the adventures of his latest hunting trip with his father, a renewable resource-officer. His aga (grandmother) grins as Tom proudly talks about trapping rats (muskrats), hunting ducks and shooting his first caribou. In one of Macintosh’s photographs, Tom sits in an orange jacket in the prow of a boat, confidently hunting ducks in the bright summer light at midnight. Anyone who personally holds an anti-hunting perspective only has to read Tom’s story to understand that, for him, shooting ducks is an important part of his apprenticeship in life. He learns about the outdoor traditions of his people, and he goes to school at Moose Kerr School. Whether outdoors or in, Tom’s bouncingly fun personality beams from every page.
Source: The Canadian Children's Bookcentre. Summer 2008. Vol.31 No.3.
The Delta is My Home (Land Is Our Storybook)
Eleven-year-old Tom McLeod is Gwich’in and Inuvialuit and lives in Aklavik. He tells readers about how the Mackenzie Delta floods in the spring, how to make bannock and about trapping muskrats and hunting ducks. The text is supplemented by photographs and a detailed glossary.Source: The Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Best Books for Kids & Teens. 2009.
Other titles by
Other titles by
Sharing Our Truths
Tapwe
Au coeur de nos croyances
No Borders
Kigliqangittuq
Fiers d'etre Innvialuits
Le caribou nourrit notre �me
The Caribou Feed Our Soul (French)
Viens avec moi
nous apprendrons ensemble!
Nos histoires sont vivantes
At the Heart of It
Dene dzó t?áré
Comme on se sent bien ici!
Le delta, c'est mon chez moi
Other titles by
Sharing Our Truths
Tapwe
Au coeur de nos croyances
No Borders
Kigliqangittuq
Fiers d'etre Innvialuits
Le caribou nourrit notre �me
The Caribou Feed Our Soul (French)
Viens avec moi
nous apprendrons ensemble!
Nos histoires sont vivantes
At the Heart of It
Dene dzó t?áré
Comme on se sent bien ici!