A Day with Yayah By Nicola I. Campbell
This book is 1 of the 5 picture books on the Global Read Aloud (GRA) list this year. They all deal with indigenous people in Canada and their cultural stories. I loved the concept of this book-children spending a day learning about the different native plants and their names in their dialect from their grandmother. However, I found the text a little long. I also loved that they included native words and included some of the pronunciations in the text but the rest of the pronunciations were at the end of the book which would definitely take some practice before reading this book aloud. All in all, it is a good story when paired with the rest of the GRA picture books. Hardcover Young indigenous children spend the day with their grandmother. She teaches them their native language and what wild plants are safe to eat. I was so impressed with this book and wished that I had someone to teach me the native culture. Hardcover Why we chose this book:
The cover caught my eye. And the synopsis sealed the deal. Crocodile Books provided a review copy.
Mom's Review (V)
Nikki and her grandmother harvest wild plants in springtime.
There is so much to A Day with Yayah that I have spent days now trying to figure out where to begin. I'm still not sure, but I think I'd best begin with a summary. Nikki and her friends accompany Yayah (her grandmother) on an excursion to find wild plants they like to eat. Along the way, Yayah teaches the eager learners new words in the language of their forebears. This book is worth reading for so many reasons. Readers see several examples of loving relationships: intergenerational, familial, and neighborly. Everyone is playful with one another, kind, and respectful. It's clear from the conversation that these are close individuals who make up part of the fabric of each other's lives. And the focal relationship is that of Nikki and Yayah. Here is a grandmother who has a special bond with her granddaughter; from teaching Nikki new words to gently braiding her hair, the story and illustrations exude the care and attention given Nikki.
The new words bring me to my second point. Nikki and her friends ask Yayah, What are they [different plants] called our language? This language is a Nlaka'pamux (Thomson River Salish), a First Nations language spoken in what is now British Columbia. Back matter informs the reader that the Nlaka'pamux language is considered critically endangered. This book serves to introduce it and this issue to a wider audience while also allowing young Nlaka'pamux readers to see their indigenous language in a mass-market picture book. It is only because I've been delving deeper into children's literature that I have become aware of First Nations authors and the way in which indigenous peoples and languages were treated as a result of colonization in Canada. You know by now that one of my major goals when selecting books for T is fostering a respect and appreciation for the rich variety of cultures. This hits that target. A pronunciation guide in the back is exceedingly helpful, as is the way the children sound out the words as part of their conversation with Yayah. They set an excellent example of enthusiasm for learning, and the joy of childhood flows with each turn of the page.
I would recommend this beautiful picture book for the relationships, the attitude toward nature, the introduction of a particular culture and language, and the love of learning that A Day with Yayah showcases.
It is worth noting that both the author and the illustrator are of First Nations heritage.
Son's Review (T)
(Age: almost 4)
Mom: At the end here, the author thanks us for letting her share her language with us. Do you think her language is important to her?
Son: Yeah.
Mom: Not a lot of people speak this language in the book anymore. I've been thinking a lot about that. I feel like it would disconnect me from the past and the people in my family if I didn't speak their language anymore. How would you feel if not a lot of people spoke your language?
Son: Sad.
Mom: What would you do?
Son: Make people speak my language by getting a lot of people together and making them speak my language. I would look it up on the puggie [computer] and send it to them.
Mom: Do you think it's fair for the government to make people speak one particular language, and not let them speak their own language?
Son: No. Why did the government say that?
Mom: That's a good question. Usually that happens because a group of people wants power. Can you think of a better rule?
Son: To not take power away.
Mom: Should we protect languages? How do you think it would make people feel to be able to speak their own language?
Son: Yes! Happy!
Mom: How might you feel if you didn't know your grandma's language? Would you want to learn it?
Son: Bad that I didn't know my grandma's language. We would look up their language. ... Yeah. Of course yeah.
Mom: How are you like the kids in this story?
Son: I like to harvest vegetables...carrots, tomatoes, and kale.
Mom: Would you want to be friends with Nikki? What would you do together?
Son: Yes. Positively. I would do everything with Nikki. Harvest vegetables. Make something.
Mom: What did you like about the book? What was your favorite part?
Son: I just really liked it. The part when they saw the poison ivy.
(He's been stuck on poison ivy since we found some in our yard in summer. This is lasting a long time.)
Mom: What should people know about A Day with Yayah?
Son: Well, that it's about a grandmother and grandchild. Hardcover I am a sucker for Julie Flett's illustrations, and Campbell wrote Shi-shi-etko, which 7-year old uses as his reference for any sad book in the world: Will it be like Shi-shi-etko? Because I can't do that. We read it like two years ago, and he was so upset that he refuses to read sad books anymore. So her words definitely have staying power. And here, that is an excellent thing, because the Nłeʔkepmxcin language is considered critically endangered. Having a picture book that includes so many elements of the language, along with a pronunciation guide, is important. This book takes some work to read, but those who put forth the effort will be well-rewarded. Hardcover A fantastic and beautifully illustrated children's book on interior salish language, culture and natural history. Hardcover
Set in the Okanagon, BC, a First Nations family goes on an outing to forage for herbs and mushrooms. Grandmother passes down her knowledge of plant life to her young grandchildren. A Day with Yayah
This was a nice picture book that is also an educational book as a Yayah (grandmother) spends time alone with her grandchildren, passing down the traditional natural world of their culture. Although the scmem’i?t (children) don’t like to eat everything Yayah gathers, they love to be with her, when she collects her harvest and I understand why. Yayah’s patience and knowledge flows freely from her and just being with her and learning from her is a wonderful day.
Yayah teaches the scmem’i?t new words every day and she reinforces those words as she speaks to them throughout the day. Teaching them the Indigenous language, Yayah speaks to them calmly and in a gentle tone as she mixes this language with the English language, as they look and gather for the first spring crop. Yayah teaches them, she educates them not in just the harvest but in the environment around them so that in the future, they will be able to gather their own harvest successfully. There’s a Glossary of Words at the back of the book that helps. I would love to hear this book being read. A wonderful, good feeling book. 5 stars
Hardcover A beautiful and simple story of a Grandmother taking her grandchildren foraging, showing them how to identify what they find and how to respect nature and what it is offering to us. This First Nations Grandmother also teaches the children some words in their own language, explaining the sounds and how to pronounce the words. There is a glossary at the back with phonetics so you can have a go yourself, I haven't quite mastered making x sound like clearing my throat but it was fun trying.
This is an interesting book with an informative mix of nature and language and lovely story of old ways and language being passed on to future generations without being lost. Hardcover There is indeed and certainly very much to enjoy and appreciate with regard A Day with Yayah. From Nicola I. Campbell's both engaging and descriptive narrative (which shows how Yayah, how the wise and sweetly down-to-earth grandmother teaches her children and grandchildren how to safely gather plants, mushrooms etc. for both eating and medicinal purposes, while at the same time also practicing with them their ancestral language, the critically endangered tongue of the Interior Salishan peoples of the Canadian province of British Columbia) to Julie Flett's descriptive accompanying artwork, pictures that colourfully celebrate both community and of course also the many plants and mushrooms being collected, A Day with Yayah has been both a total reading pleasure and also a wonderfully educational, enlightening, experience for me (learning from Nicola I. Campbell's Yayah, like the children featured in A Day with Yayah, like Jamesie, Nikki and Lenny, not only about how to safely and with environmental respect gather plants but also trying my hand at pronouncing and remembering the included N|e¿kepmxcin words, not always successfully, but hey, I am just a raw beginner).
Four shining stars for A Day with Yayah, for a delightful and marvellous marriage of Nicola I. Campbell's text and Julie Flett's images, and the only reason why I am not considering five stars for A Day with Yayah is that I do wish the included N|e¿kepmxcin words were rendered in a solid black and not in a light blue-green font colour (as within both the text and the glossary, they at least to my ageing eyes frustratingly seem to blend in too much with the background, thus making these unknown and as such to me also rather exotic words annoyingly difficult to easily read and practice). Hardcover Incredible title about learning between generations about our natural world. This book raises awareness about endangered Indigenous languages and includes a glossary of words with pronunciations. Local relevance (Interior Salish) Hardcover Yayah (grandmother) and her scmém'iʔt (children) go foraging for certain foods in this sweetly educational picture-book from Nicola I. Campbell, a Canadian children's author of Interior Salish and Métis ancestry, and Cree-Métis illustrator Julie Flett. In each scene, various words from the Nłeʔkepmxcín language - also known as the Thompson language, Nłeʔkepmxcín is an Interior Salishan tongue spoken in the Nicola Valley of British Columbia - are introduced and used in context in the story, together with a pronunciation guide provided by the characters themselves. This works quite well with the storytelling structure of the book, as Yayah is teaching her grandchildren their language, in addition to teaching them how to identify and harvest various edible plants...
Having greatly enjoyed Campbell's previous picture-books, from the deeply moving Shi-shi-etko to the sweet Grandpa's Girls, I was quite excited to pick up A Day with Yayah, especially after an online friend particularly recommended it to me. I was even more eager once I realized that it was illustrated by Flett, whose Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L'alfabet di Michif / Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet is a personal favorite, and whose work is always beautiful to behold. I was not disappointed, finding this one both educational and engaging, not to mention absolutely beautiful. I don't know that it really touched me emotionally, the way some of Campbell's other stories have done, but it was nevertheless lovely. Flett's artwork is gorgeous (as always), and I particularly appreciated the decorative end-papers, both front and rear, which appear to be of a different kind of paper than the other pages, and which feature beautiful plants, and a eye-catching yellow bird. There is a clear didactic purpose here - to teach some basic Nłeʔkepmxcín vocabulary - but that's more than fine, given the nature of that purpose, and the way it is integrated into a fun story. Recommended to anyone interested in the Nłeʔkepmxcín language, and fellow fans of Campbell and Flett. Hardcover
