Kokum, Are These Moose Tracks

A cozy story for celebrating fall, Kokum, Are These Moose Tracks by Tyna Legault Taylor and Michelle Dao takes readers into the fall forest to hunt for moose. This book is the second in the Joshua Learns from the Land series.

Joshua loves his Kokum and especially loves her moose meat stew, which she always makes for the family in the fall. In order to make moose meat stew, they have to go hunt for moose. They put on their high-vis orange gear and head to the forest, encountering many different kinds of tracks until they finally find the moose they are looking for.

Kokum, Are These Moose Tracks is a perfect cozy story for the fall and a beautiful story to show readers what it is like to be stewards of the land and be observers of the world around them. In the story, Joshua and Kokum come across many different tracks from different forest animals and readers are able to discover these different animal prints and how to identify them along with Joshua. 

I LOVE how readers not only get to experience the Omushkegomowin (Swampy Cree) language throughout the story but also get to experience Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) language. There are many words throughout the text represented by both languages and there is a pronunciation guide at the back of the book to help non native speakers. The inclusion of both language, two languages that are spoken throughout Turtle Island, helps create language learners and ensures that languages are not lost due to settler colonialism.

Michelle Dao’s illustrations take readers into the forest with Joshua and his Kokum. Her colours and backgrounds immerse the reader in the hunt with the characters. The characters, the animals, and the animal prints are so distinct and easy for readers to identify and learn from. I love how much joy is reflected on the faces of Joshua and his Kokum.