Books at Bedtime: The Stories of Richard Van Camp
A few weeks ago, I attended a reading by First Nations authors at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission session held in Winnipeg (which I also posted about recently) and was introduced to the stories of the engaging and entertaining First Nations writer, Richard Van Camp. I immediately sought out his books at the library and came home with What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses, illustrated by George Littlechild (Children’s Book Press, 1998) and A Man Called Raven (Children’s Book Press, 1997).
As soon as I got these books, I read them to my daughter and she was completely taken in by
them. She was struck especially by the lesson conveyed in A Man Called Raven wherein a mysterious man teaches some boys not to be cruel to ravens. She also thought the books were very colorful and indeed, George Littlechild’s illustrations are very vibrant. A week after we read the books together (and we’d been to the zoo and seen a crane which I pointed out to my daughter was the bird in the famous Japanese folktale, the Crane Wife), my daughter kept asking me for the ‘crane’ book. What crane book? I wondered. The one we read before, she said. I was puzzled until I finally clued in that she was referring to A Man Called Raven, except that she’d mixed up the birds! That was a funny moment in mixing up symbols! However culturally disparate, both stories do feature shape shifting birds. I’ll not tell you anymore though; you can seek out the stories yourselves!
For more about Richard Van Camp, you can check the PaperTigers website here in Personal Views and here for an interview with Richard.
July 12th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I really enjoyed reading our reprint of the interview and Richard’s own Personal View for PaperTigers, but I have to admit I hadn’t actually got as far as seeking out his books. You have completely convinced me – and I love your anecdote about your daughter