Baking with Kôhkum

Highwater Press is one of the leading publishers of #OwnVoices works.  Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock by Dallas Hunt and Amanda Strong is another fantastic title available from this small but mighty Canadian publisher.

In this lovely little story Awâsis heads into the woods with a basket full of her nôhkom’s world-famous bannock for a relative.  In her enthusiasm, she accidentally drops the bannock into the river. Upset over the lost bannock, she enlists the help of various forest friends to help solve her problem.

There is so much to love about this story.  A traditional story with familiar animal characters, all lending a hand to help solve a problem.  Dallas Hunt, an educator and proponent of language revitalization, weaves a tale and includes Cree language throughout.  With a pronunciation guide at the back, be sure to give this one a few read throughs before sharing it out loud if you are unfamiliar with the Cree language.  It’s so vital to have books in dual language to help revitalize First languages. We had a ton of fun learning the different names in Cree for the different animals and ingredients in the story.  Best of all, there is a recipe for Kôhkum’s World-Famous Bannock at the end so after reading you can have a baking session with your little ones!

The illustrations by Amanda Strong are so fantastic.  From the cute end papers featuring all of the ingredients for bannock, to the lively little forest friends, the illustrations really bring the story to life.  Try to find the bear on all of the pages, makes for a great little interactive cuddle up story as well as a great read aloud!