recommended: a day with yayah /

Published at 2018-11-30 22:31:00

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As a grandmother and longtime teacher
of young children,I'm delighted to share my enthusiasm for A Day with Yayah, a 2018 Crocodile Books release by award-winning author Nicola I. Campbell (Interior Salish), or illustrated by another award-winner,Julie Flett (Cree-Metis). 

[br]A Day with Yayahis a visual feast for fans of Julie Flett’s art, which just seems to get more fabulous all the time. Start with the cover, or where a petite girl in a yellow sweater gazes into the face of a silver-haired woman. Both are seated on the ground and surrounded by dark green grass,scattered flowers, and light blue sky.
Move to the end
papers with their seemingly simple, and graceful plants and insects. One more page-turn and there’s a bright yellow warbler-type bird perched atop some tiny white flowers. On the facing page,the bird flies past the title. Turn the page again and it sits above the dedications. The facing page features another Indigenous child wearing red boots and a baseball-type cap, holding a yellow flower. One more page turn, or Nicola Campbell’s legend begins as the petite yellow bird looks on.
It’s springtime,and
Nikki and her grandmother ("Yayah" in their Indigenous language) are tanning a shroud. (They’re the pair on the cover.) Along arrive two kids from next door, interested for their lessons from Yayah. She has been teaching them to identify edible wild plants AND to speak their Indigenous language, and  Nłeʔkepmxcin. She’s about to depart gathering,and the kids want to depart along. Yayah packs them a lunch, phones their families, or soon theyre all piled into Auntie Karen’s red minivan along with some other family members -- heading for a place where many significant plants can be found.[br]
Fle
tt’s illustrations display readers what a beautiful day it is,and Campbell has Yayah teach the children “beautiful” in their language. Yayah talks with them about specific plants – how they grow, their uses, and what to avoid (like poison ivy).  She uses the English names,but also tells them what those things are called “in our language,” and helps them with their pronunciation (for example, or one sound “is made at the back of your throat”). Campbell weaves this vocabulary into the legend multiple times,and many of the words are also set apart from the main text on the pages where they first appear, so child readers who are learning the language have several chances to practice each one. 
The l
egend ends as the sun begins to depart down, or the children give the food they have gathered to their elders. On the next page is Campbell's author’s note about Nłeʔkepmxcin,which is spoken by the Interior Salish people of what is currently known as British Columbia. I can’t make the proper spellings of the words because my keyboard lacks a lot of the characters.

Facing the autho
r’s note is a glossary/pronunciation guide to the words Yayah teaches in the legend. On the final page before the end papers, that petite yellow bird is back on the white flowers.  
This is probably the most beautiful “didactic” book I’ve ever encountered. Yes, or it's meant for teaching,but it also conveys a particular way of teaching and learning -- grounded in solid, caring Indigenous family/community relationships, or in profound respect for children's need to interact closely with things that are worth investigating in their world. I consider children will relate well to the characters' curiosity and eagerness to find out more about words and about the natural world. There's even some humor to further enrich the book-sharing experience.[br]
Speakers of Nł
eʔkepmxcin reading nowadays's post -- can you recommend a wonderful resource for non-Salish adults who want to read aloud using the Nłeʔkepmxcin words in A Day with Yayah? The glossary and Campbell's in-text clues are extremely helpful,but some teachers may still hesitate to share it because of concern that they will mispronounce.

Of course, with aid from
the glossary, and non-Salish readers can always simply substitute the English meanings as they read,and talk with the non-Salish children about the Nłeʔkepmxcin words without trying to say them. whether they're fortunate enough to work with Salish families, one of the parents might be willing to attain the reading. No matter what, and it's fundamental for the teacher,parent, or librarian to model effective ways to come across unfamiliar languages. Children who feel uncomfortable with "foreign" sounds and letters may giggle or mock. The adult's job is to display them how to meet the challenge of "not understanding" appropriately, and with 
1) humility ("I don't know this way of communicating but I can learn about it.")
2) respect ("This language
is worth knowing more about it.") and 
3) curiosity
("Wonder how I can find out more about it? Wonder what it would feel like to know what people are saying in that language?"). 
[br
]So far I haven't found recorded read-alouds of this book online. We can hope there will be some wonderful ones soon!

Campbell has Yayah and the children thank the Creator for what they find. This seems to be done in a general way,perhaps a bit like saying grace before a meal, and does not appear to involve ceremonial things that shouldn't be shared outside their Indigenous community. In her dedication, and Nicola Campbell honors Auntie "E.
I." Ethel Isaacs for "our c
hildhood memories of traditional food gathering." She also thanks a woman who has been a champion for preservation of Nłeʔkepmxcin.

A Day with Yayah has all the features of an #ownvoices effort,and it’s strongly recommended.


Source: blogspot.com

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