By Brittany Luby

Groundwood Books

October 3, 2023

Hardcover

ThemesIndigenousNature and environmentPicture Book

Age / Grade 4-7 / Kindergarten-Grade 1

In this bilingual book, an Anishinaabe child explores the cultural and ecological importance of the precious mnoomin seed and the circle of life mnoomin sustains.

The story opens at harvest time. A child holds a mnoomin seed and imagines all the life that made a single seed possible—Mayfly, Pike, Muskrat, Eagle and Moose, all had a part to play in bringing the seed into being.

We follow the child and family through a harvest day as they make offerings of tobacco, then gently knock ripe seeds into their canoe. On shore, they prepare the seeds, cook up a feast, and gratefully plant some seeds they’d set aside.