Pistes d'exploration

Do a picture walk. Look for details and recurring elements in the illustrations. Use these to help make predictions about the characters, setting and plot.

Notice the English and Cree titles. Read the explanation on the inside cover. Listen to online samples of the Cree language. Try reading a few Cree phrases.

With a partner, re-enact Cody and Joe’s caribou dance and song. Make up your own caribou-calling ritual.

Research other artwork by the illustrator, John Rombough. Create a painting in the same Dene style.

Do a picture walk and notice the style and colours of the drawings. Look for the recurrent elements in the pictures to help make predictions about the characters, setting and plot.

Draw a mind map of the story and retell it to a partner. Include words such as first, next, then, after and finally.

Imagine 10,000 caribou running past you. List words, from the book and from your response, that would express this moment. Think of ways to organize these words (sounds, feelings, sensations, etc.).

A Walk on the Tundra, My Arctic 1,2,3, Magic Words: From the Ancient Oral Tradition of the Inuit, Deer, Moose, Elk and Caribou, I Is for Inuksuk: An Arctic Celebration

Mots-clés

Folklore , bilingual text , Canadian art , caribou , Cree , customs , Far North

Commentaire descriptif

This story begins by introducing young readers to the traditional life of Cree brothers, Joe and Cody: “Most of the year the lakes and islands and rivers and hills were covered in snow.” Language in both English and Cree describes the family’s connection to the caribou—how they follow the herd to survive. Joe plays his accordion to call them; Cody dances. “Faster than lightning, a thousand caribou burst from the forest.” Graphic illustrations use heavy black forms and flat colour fills, to create stylized depictions of characters and the land. Forms seem to merge and shift, conveying a sense of connection and spirit in all things. In one image, faces emerge from rocks, while the boys themselves seem to be built from stone. In another, the thundering herd moves across the foreground, transforming into a billowing cloud in the distance. In the end, Mama clings to Papa under a great swoosh that’s shaped like the Northern Lights. But the children are not trampled; they had called the herd and the spirit of the herd responded: “atop a large rock, sat Joe and Cody, laughing and laughing and laughing.”