What's in a Bead?

by Kelsey Borgford (Author) Tessa Pizzale (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Tessa loves how her grandmother always smells of campfire stories. Mom says it's because Kohkom spends her days sewing beautiful beads onto smoked hides. Inspired, Tessa asks Kohkom to teach her beading, but first she must listen and learn about the many stories held in a bead.

A celebration of Cree craftsmanship, language, and learning. The loving exchange of knowledge between Tessa and her Kohkom will be familiar to many children. Readers will learn that different Indigenous communities have different beadwork techniques, and that this traditional art form is alive and thriving today.

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Kirkus

A delicate tribute to beading and storytelling, connecting the past, present, and future of Native communities.

Publishers Weekly

In order to learn beading from her beloved grandmother, Kohkam, a Cree child must learn the "many stories in a bead... the stories they tell us." Before asking to be taught to bead, young Tessa is instructed to make a gift for Kohkam: "You should always offer tobacco before asking for something from our Elders." The child crafts a red fabric square, fills it with tobacco, then ties it into a pouch. Kohkom, who "always smells like campfire stories" from hand-sewing colorful beads to smoked hides, accepts the gift, then begins lessons by offering stories about a time when "the ceremonies and gatherings where we would wear our traditional regalia were banned" and discussing the way that "beads can show people who we are." Nbisiing Nishnaabe author Borgford approaches the history with sensitivity while interspersing Cree vocabulary into scenes of a close-knit family passing on knowledge. Cree illustrator Pizzale, meanwhile, captures the straightforward text in boldly colored illustrations filled with details of a long-held tradition. Simultaneously publishing in a bilingual edition. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Delight beckons from the cover to the last page of What's in a Bead?. Rich in visual details and told from the perspective of Tessa, a First Nations girl (Cree), What's in a Bead? documents educational, social, and cultural practices of beading in her family and community. It contains colour-rich, carefully rendered visual images, beaded objects, and ceremonies related to beading.... Recommended. — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781772603668
Lexile Measure
730
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Second Story Press
Publication date
March 12, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013030 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Multigenerational
JUV030090 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | Canada - Native Canadian
JUV030140 - Juvenile Fiction | Indigenous | Teachings
Library of Congress categories
-

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