Science, Traditional Knowledge, and Beautiful Picture books

Science, Traditional Knowledge, and Beautiful Picture Books

by Gillian O'Reilly

Celebrate National Aboriginal Day (June21, 2020) and science by exploring these beautiful picture books.

For toddlers and pre-schoolers, Indigenous artist Roy Henry Vickers and his co-author Robert Budd have created gorgeous board books One Eagle Soaring and Sockeye Silver, Saltchuck Blue (Harbour Publishing). Here's a link to the listing for One Eagle Soaring at Harbour Publishing.

These books introduce little ones to numbers and colours and the landscape, flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. Just out this month is the next book in the series Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak, looking at -- you guessed it -- the sounds animals make. Click here for a link to learn more about this book.

For slightly older children, we turn from animals to plants with A Day with Yayah (Tradewind Books), written by Nicola I. Campbell and illustrated by Julie Flett, both award-winning creators. In BC’s Nicola Valley, a grandmother (Yayah) shares her extensive knowledge of the natural world with her grandchildren, and encourages them to use the Nłeʔkepmxcin words for the plants they are collecting. Here's a link to find this book at Tradewind.

Two more excellent depictions of traditional knowledge being shared through generations can be found in A Walk on the Tundra and A Walk on the Shore. (Here's a link to where these books were discussed in a previous blog post on Sci/Why along with other books from publisher Inhabit Media).

Enjoy these books on National Aboriginal Day and all year around. Happy reading!

Gillian O’Reilly is the former editor of Canadian Children’s Book News and the co-author (with Cora Lee) of The Great Number Rumble: A Story of Math in Surprising Places.