Hetxw’ms Gyetxw Brett D. Huson

This book tells the story of how the Mother Raven teaches her chicks. It is both informative and beautiful and will appeal to a wide age group. In a sidebar, words that might be new to children are explained. Huson and Donovan show the Raven as it is seen by Indigenous people that lets the reader appreciate some of their culture and art. Part of the story portrays the Raven Mother enticing a wolf pack to feast on a frozen moose, thereby allowing her chicks to share some morsels that would otherwise have been too difficult to access.… (más)

Beautifully illustrated, this story follows Mother Grizzly and her cubs through the seasons on the shared land of the Gitxsan people of British Columbia. Written by #OwnVoices Gitxsan member Gyetxw Hetxw'ms (Brett D. Huson), we learn about the life cycle of the Grizzly as well as the connectedness of the Gitxsan to their land. Gitxsan words are introduced throughout the book, although the lack of a pronunciation guide makes it difficult to share the language while you are reading it. The book follows the equally appealing, The Sockeye Mother (Mothers of Xsan). American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Title.… (más)

My wife, daughter, and I were reading this out loud, but at a certain point we gave up on the dry but educational text as the blocks of it just kept getting larger and larger. We flipped through the rest of the book looking at the pictures, which were quite nice. I finished reading it on my own later that night.

I don't understand why definitions for for certain big words were put on the story pages but no attempt was made to help with the pronunciation of the words from the indigenous Gitxsan language. I can explain "torpor" and "insatiable" on my own, but I had no clue what to do as a narrator when I came to "Wiihlaxs," "Hlaphl maaxws," "Nox Lik'i'nsxw," and "Lasa gwineekxw."… (más)