Penny M Thomas

I like the inclusion of Cree words and what they mean in English. It was repetitive, however, that almost every translation had some form of "this means that" to it. There wasn't much originality in the narrative, but the repetition is probably good if this book was used as a read aloud. It was a sweet story and says nimoshom (my grandfather), was Cree and would speak to the children with simple words. It is a tribute to the culture, and provides native children with a story that mirrors ones non-native children get in most books. The artwork is pretty with its soft pastel watercolor techniques and lends itself to the simple but elegant story line. I do wish the glossary of words at the back of the book phonetically spelled out the Cree words. ' Ekosi,' means that's it, okay, or amen.… (mehr)

This is a simple yet cute book that introduces the Cree language and a bit of its culture through a bus driver, called Nimoshom (this means grandfather in Cree) and his charges. It tells about his habits while driving the children to school and teaches a few Cree words while doing this. The illustrations are wonderful. They look a bit like pastel, pencil crayon and water colour but I am not positive. They are colourful, show wonderful emotion and life. This is a wonderful book to use when teaching about cultures around the world as well as Native Canadians/Americans. I recommend this book to any and all schools, classrooms and public libraries. It could be used in a variety of ways from read aloud, independent reading and to teach a few words from a new language. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.… (mehr)