Tag: family

Miigiwe – Giving Away is Good

An Anishinaabe Christmas – written by Wab Kinew, illustrated by Erin Hill
Tundra Books, 2024

Finding a children’s book that may be identified as an instant classic is not to be taken for granted. One book that fits that category is An Anishinaabe Christmas. It brings to mind Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, the versions illustrated by both Edward Ardizzone and Chris Raschka, not because of any direct similarity, because the books are very different. Both classics evoke a particular, but also universal, immersion in childhood. You leave the book, and return to it, with a feeling of peacefulness without sentimentality.

A young child from an Indigenous community is going with his parents to visit their extended family on the reservation.  It is winter solstice, an inseparable element of their culture’s celebration of Christmas. Baby, as he is called in the book, looks serious, even puzzled, as his mother and father bundle him up and get ready for their car trip. Their evident excitement is in contrast to his hesitation; this experience is typical of childhood. He is concerned that Santa will not find him away from their home. The cultural signifier of this gift-giving figure so common in the West then transitions to the specific deep roots on the Anishinaabe people.

As they drive from the city to the country, the family passes a sign warning not to feed the bears. This prompts a memory that connects Baby to her heritage, and to the natural world that is part of it. Her father repeats the story of how he and other adults had formed a protective circle so that a lost bear cub could find its home. The idea of communalities between humans and animals is organic to the picture, without any ideological explanations. “The bear has a family?” Baby asks. Of course it does, and the father not only answers, but uses the opportunity to introduce words in their native language. (Wab Kinew includes these terms in a glossary at the end of the book, along with an explanation of the cultural syncretism combining Christmas with Indigenous traditions.) The bear also has makwa, family, although it is distinct from the human one.  The bears’ makwa  will “snuggle up in their dens with their babies for Christmas.”

One thing the bear cub will not do is craft a gift for his grandparents, Kookom and Mooshom. The picture of this project is composed of carefully spaced elements, each one of which represents something important: creativity, love, simplicity, focus. Glue, scissors, a red paper heart, become a concrete expression of miigiwe, that Baby’s father has explained: “That means ‘giving away.’ And it’s good.”

The pictures by Erin Hill alternate outdoor panoramas, domestic interiors, and framed scenes of specific activities. A view of the family seated around a wood stove is set an angle and viewed from a slight elevation. Relatives embrace, but there is empty space between different sections of the picture.  Kookom and Mooshom are thrilled to see their grandchild, but they listen carefully to his narration of the car trip. He has processed the truths his father communicated and his repeats them, with understanding, to the older generation. Do you have grandparents? Are you a grandparent? Do you remember your grandparents? You will never forget these scenes.  The family goes outdoors, where they sing about the poetry of winter while playing drums. Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, An Anishinaabe Christmas will resonate as strongly as that chorus.

A Sesame Street Hanukkah Classic

The Count’s Hanukkah Countdown (Shalom Sesame) – written by Tilda Balsley and Ellen Fischer, illustrated by Tom Leigh
Kar-Ben Publishing, 2012

Sesame Street Hanukkah classic books are, admittedly, a somewhat narrow category.  If you know Count Count, you probably realize that Hanukkah is a terrific holiday for him, since it allows him to obsessively enumerate the festival’s eight days and everything associated with them. 

The book opens with Grover grasping a chanukiah (Hanukkah menorah) clutching a dreidel, and welcoming you to the celebration of the Festival of Lights.  Numerals in the text are in bold, making it fun for young children learning to count, but there is also an extended narrative. Grover begins by presenting a shopping list of ingredients to the Count, and modestly asks if that expert at counting had not realized that “furry blue monsters are excellent shoppers.”  The list comprises all the ingredients to make potato latkes (pancakes).

The scene moves to the kitchen of their Israeli friends and extended family.  Sesame Street monsters all have different color skin. Uncle Joe is purple and Aunt Sara is green.  The whole mishpacha (family) are busily engaged peeling potatoes and measuring oil. The Count enters. He is thrilled to see the multi-branch chanukiah, but confused that, on the first night, only one candle plus the shamash (helper candle) is lit. Even though he is the title character, everyone plays an important role in this family-centered holiday. Uncle Joe, seated in his easy chair, relates the historical events commemorated by Hanukkah. His language is so vivid that the children imagine the Greek soldiers riding on their elephants, depicted in a word-bubble-like cloud. They desecrate the Temple, but Uncle Joe quickly advances to the counting element, fortified by heroism. There was only enough oil for 1 night, but it miraculously lasted for 8.

Then comes the consumption of latkes. Count Count evens out the number by eating one, and everyone follows his zany example by taking 8 bites of every food item. These include not only latkes, but the equally traditional sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts).  The game of dreidel, fortunately, also involves the counting of chocolate gelt (coins). The dreidel game scene shows everyone seated in a circle on the floor. The Count is viewed from the back, with his triangular green cape pointing upward.  Even among Muppets, he looks distinctive. Presents also lend themselves to counting. We see only their colorful gift bags, so we can use our imagination about what the bags may contain.

Readers will agree with Grover that Hanukkah, to use his favorite adjective, is “totally awesome,” and to the Count, the “8 is the perfect Hanukkah number.” It’s hard to disagree with him.