New Munsch Book Will Be in Algonquin Language

It could mean a national bestseller in Anishinabemowiin

Algonquin author and illustrator, Jay Odijck, has announced that his collaboration with famed story-teller Robert Munsch is something special: the book will be released with both English and Algonquin on the pages, not separate translations. Odijck emphasizes:

This means that we could and most likely WILL see a book in an Indigenous language in every major bookstore, Walmart etc across Canada.. And we could have a national bestseller in Anishinabemowiin.


He goes on to say in his Facebook post (which you can see in full below):

“We can show publishers that this works, and provide a starting point for a potential huge new resource for language Preservation / revitalization. This takes the onus of translation and printing off First Nations communities.”

The new book is called Bear for Breakfast / Makwa kidji kijeba wisiniyan and will be released February 11th, 2019. You can pre-order on Amazon.ca now.

 

Jay Odjick is from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg community in Quebec. Odjick previously collaborated with Munsch on the book Blackflies. He is the writer and illustrator of the graphic novel KAGAGI:The Raven, published by Arcana Comics, which was made into an animated series for APTN.

 

 

Image: Odjick/Scholastic