Pistes d'exploration

Discuss the illustrations and how they contribute to your understanding and appreciation of the story.

Write your own myth involving magic. What if people had mysterious powers?

In your journal, write about the animal you would choose to be and explain why.

Read the text aloud with a partner. Try adding music and sound effects to your performance.

Join in as the story is re-read aloud.

As your read, add to a class anchor chart of animals.

Discuss what humans and animals have in common. What does the story tell you about the relationship between humans and animals?

Write about which animal you would like to be and why. Draw a picture of yourself as part human and part animal.

The Legend of Lightning & Thunder, The Legend of the Fog, I Is for Inuksuk: An Arctic Celebration, Caribou Song

Mots-clés

Poetry , Far North , folktales , human-animal relationships , Inuit , magic , oral history

Commentaire descriptif

This powerful story was found among the notes of Arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen, and is thought to be a transcription of a traditional Inuit tale about a time when animals and people were as one. The direct simplicity of the language combines powerfully with the story’s magical and thought-provoking content: “Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals. There was no difference. All spoke the same language.” The book serves an enormous range of reading skills, as a beautiful and engaging read-aloud for early readers, to a source on myth and metaphor for students of creative writing: “That was a time when words were like magic. . . . All you had to do was say it.” The illustrations are graphic, with strong line and the thick application of variegated colours. They evoke the style and motifs of Aboriginal art, while remaining accessible to very young readers; a collection of Arctic animals wear human clothes as they guide a boat across curlicue waters; a bird bears the face of a human being; fish fall from the sky, into the outstretched arms of hungry people. Both story and images offer opportunities for further research into Arctic history, Inuit and First Nations’ art, as well as aboriginal mythoral history.