Description

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Canadian Information Book Award Finalist 2009

First Nations Communities Read selection, 2009

Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice, 2009

Silver Birch Express nominee, 2010

Tom McLeod is an eleven-year-old boy from Aklavik who is a gifted storyteller heard frequently on CBC Radio North. He is of mixed cultural heritage-Gwich'in and Inuvialuit.

Tom tells us why his home in the Mackenzie Delta is a special place and why he loves to live on the land. He describes how his town floods in the spring and why he loves "ratting" (trapping muskrats) and hunting "black ducks" (white-winged and surf scoters) in the Delta.

Readers will learn why these ducks are decreasing in number and how and why they are important to Tom and his people. Tom says, Northerners have always hunted animals for survival. We are careful about how we use the land. To be good hunters we need to pay attention to what is happening on the land around us-that's why it's important for us to be out there. We are the first to know if the land and animals are changing.

About the Author

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Mindy Willett lives in Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories. She is a teacher at heart although no longer in the classroom. She first came north to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut in 1987 and most recently taught in Kugluktuk, Nunavut from 1996 to 2000. Mindy stopped being a classroom teacher when she had her son Jack. To remain home as much as possible, she started her own home-based business, writing educational materials. Tessa Macintosh has lived and worked north of 60 for over two decades and has been the official photographer for the government of the Northwest Territories for over 10 years. As one of the few professional photographers in the north, Tessa Macintosh has developed a varied repertoire of photographic skills.