A review by azuki
Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock by Amanda Strong, Dallas Hunt

5.0

Highly recommended! This #OwnVoices picture book, written in Cree and English, is outstanding. When Awâsis is sent to deliver her grandmother's delicious bannock to a relative's home, she accidentally drops the prized food as she skips across a bridge. Awâsis turns to animals in the forest for help: do they know where she can find some bannock? None of the creatures know, but each offers a bannock ingredient to help Awâsis along her way. Author Dallas Hunt's (Swan River First Nation) creative storytelling keeps the protagonist's interactions fresh. Notably, Hunt uses the singular "they" pronoun for Ôhô (the sleepy owl) and demonstrates equitable, intentional relationships between people and non-human beings. Contains a recipe for bannock, as well as a pronunciation guide for the Cree words that are seamlessly untranslated and un-italicized in the text.