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Book review: First Nation’s nature story for kids conveys message of respect, wonder

Fourth in a series of Gitxsan Nation rivers books, The Frog Mother follows a population of Columbia spotted frogs through a cycle of life

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The Frog Mother (Book 4, Mothers of Xsan)

By Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), Illustrated by Natasha Donovan

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Highwater Press (Winnipeg, 2021)

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$23.00 | 32pp.


The Gitxsan, an Indigenous First Nation whose unceded territories surround the headwaters of what colonial settlers called the Bulkley, Skeena and Kispiox rivers, have a long practice of paying attention to those rivers and their creatures.

The Gitxsan have other names for the rivers, of course, names now thousands of years old. (They call what settlers know as the Skeena the Xsan, or River of Mists.) Theirs is an ancient, sophisticated culture that has prospered for millennia beside these rivers through its teaching of respect and reverence for land and water. It is a matrilineal culture that reveres mothers, both human and animal.

The Frog Mother is book four in a series, the Mothers of Xsan. It was preceded by The Sockeye Mother, The Grizzly Mother and The Eagle Mother. Like the earlier books in the series, The Frog Mother pairs luminously beautiful illustrations by Metis artist Natasha Donovan with a spare, tender text written by award-winning Gitxsan author Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson.)

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The Frog Mother follows a population of Columbia spotted frogs through a cycle of life. The reader (this is a book designed to be read by kids in Grades 3-7) witnesses a frog mother, Nox Ga’naaw, laying her eggs and then follows lives of her babies as they emerge and morph from tadpoles to mature frogs and ready themselves to complete the cycle by laying their own eggs.

On every page, the narration is enhanced by Donovan’s exquisite illustrations. This lovely book succeeds both as an educational and engaging read and as a folio of phenomenal visual art. It is designed to entertain and instruct, and it succeeds in both aims.

The author told an interviewer last year: “The Mothers of Xsan series is a part of a larger vision of mine that I’ve been developing for some time. I have always had a deep interest in scientific studies as they have been incredible with regard to bridging the gap between the world and our understanding of the finer moving parts of life …

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“My goal is to connect Indigenous knowledges with science because Indigenous peoples have existed in equilibrium with their ecosystems for thousands of years longer than any sort of modern practice of science has existed.”

Highly recommended. Every school library in Canada should own copies of this remarkable series. Parents will enjoy reading them with kids at home.

Tom Sandborn lives and writes in Vancouver. Sharing books like The Frog Mother with his grandchildren is one of the joys of his life. He welcomes feedback and story tips at tos65@telus.net

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    Book review: Children’s stories that are a wonderful Indigenous journey of discovery
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  3. Read more about books and authors

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