M. Jane Smith

Oh, the pictures are glorious. Highly stylised images of characters that are still so full of personality and life they fairly leap off the page. The words are beautiful, and flow very well when read aloud. The stories have patterns and repetitions that evoke the feeling of oral storytelling.
The language is full of wonder - first Gitxsan was “thrust out of the womb of the earth”, and awoke to find the Naxno bird's sister next to him, “full of comfort and knowledge.” (Smith 2004 5, 17) I especially like the picture of the first man huddled alone with his brave little crest standing upright. (Smith 2004 12) Bluejays will never be quite as pretty, now that I know they are really a greedy mother who killed her own daughter. It is a small comfort to know that there is actually someone I can blame for mosquitoes, I now know that they buzz and bite because the Gitxtan killed the mosquito's ancestor, The Long Nosed Monster Who Walked. The story of Porcupine drinking up Creek made me thirsty until Porcupine exploded! The final story is a story about story telling, as author tells us a story of the Gitxsan making a new story about a young egret blown off course by the wind.… (más)