This comic anthology, published by Toronto's Alternate Comics History Inc. was a Christmas gift from Geoff. It was brought to life by a Kickstarter project. I read it in entirety today, and I am not surprised that it won The School Library Journal's Best Young Adult Book of 2015.
Rewriting mythological concepts from tribes all over North America into modern and futuristic contexts, it is culturally, artistically, and thematically varied. Not spanning more than about 10 pages each, at maximum, this 175-page anthology contains a multitude of stories.
They are all wonderful, but "Ayanisach", by Cree author Todd Houseman and Toronto illustrator Ben Shannon, is easily my favourite. Focusing on oral storytelling, family tradition, and industrial destruction of a planet through a metaphorical futuristic colonization, it highlights changes in civilization that occur through war and violence, but the lasting traditions of oral storytelling. The title, in Cree, means "he who tells stories".
I intend to slot this local and cultural gem onto my independent study list for the grade 10 multicultural unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment