Citation: Augustine, S. (2022). Mi’kmaq alphabet book (B. Cyr, Illus.). Monster House Publishing.
This book is for readers that are 2-10 years old (although anyone living in Mi'kma'ki would benefit from a growing vocabulary!).
This is an excellent book for young children that goes through the alphabet via both an English vocabulary and the corresponding word in Mi’kmaq.
Shyla Augustine, who is from Elsipogtog First Nation, uses a blended traditional language style of both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick dialects, which could be a great discussion point. Each page has a corresponding illustration of the selected word.
This book highlights all of the wonders that can be found in Mi’kma’ki with each letter and image, such as gasugusi (cedar) and kapaqtejkl (gooseberry). This would be an excellent choice to further understand where we live and whose land we live on!
It could only be better is if a person fluent in Mi’kmaq would perform the storytime, and maybe help us learn the phonetics of the language. Augustine notes that the book is dedicated to her children, community, and future generations.