A review by ljrinaldi
Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock by Dallas Hunt

4.0

What looks like it might be a take on Little Red Riding Hood, turns into a story of losing Bannock in the woods, and being helped to find all the ingredients by the local wildlife, so that although she can't find what was lost, she can make more of it.

Cree words are sprinkled throughout, but used in context, and with the pictures, you can figure out that sisip is a duck and that siwinikan is sugar.

And at the back of the book is a Cree to English translation as well as pronunciation guide.

Representation is important, and language dies if it is not used. This is a great way to bring the Cree language into everyday stories. One of the things I love about Cree, and this is mentioned in the back of the book is that Kohkum, which is used for grandmother, literally means "your grandmother". But it is commonly used to be just grandmother, so because that is the common usage that is how it is used here to. Languages grow with usage, and change with time.





And, we get a recipe for Bannock to boot.

A good addition to libraries and schools.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.