• Age: 6 to 8
• Grade: 1 to 3
• Reading age: 6 to 8

Maintaining the Dene storytelling tradition of passing along the teachings to their children, John Blondin relayed the story of The Legend of the Caribou Boy as he heard it from his father, George Blondin a respected Elder and storyteller. Now written down in dual language the legend is passed on to you. Discover one small part of Dene history and the lessons that have been passed on for generations.

A young boy is having trouble sleeping at night. he is being called to fulfill his destiny, a destiny which lives on today in the traditions and culture of the Dene people and their relationship to the caribou and the land on which they live.

The multimedia CD included allows readers to hear and see the Dogrib legend in Dogrib and English on a Mac or PC computer or insert it into a CD player to listen to the story in either language.

George Blondin is a Dene Elder who was born in 1923 in the Northwest Territories. He has been a wilderness guide, a miner, a trapper, Vice President of the Dene Nation, and in 1989 was elected chairman of the Denendah Elders Council. He now works parttime with the Dene Cultural Institution and writes articles for local newspapers. In 1990, Mr. Blondin was the recipient of the annual Ross Charles award for native journalism. He is the author of When the World Was New and Yamoria the Lawmaker.

George Blondin's profile page

Raised in Behchoko, the largest Dene community in the Northwest Territories, Ray spent his life surrounded by the same natural, scenic beauty that has inspired many Northern Aboriginal people to become artists. The Legend of the Caribou Boy is Ray's first book.

Ray McSwain's profile page

Mary Rose Sundberg's profile page

"Although sparse on details, there is an almost majestic simplicity to the English text. This simplicity is reflected in many of the human forms in the illustrations."

Canadian Material Volume XIV Number 13