seasonal

I have been making a greater effort to find books written within a native american perspective. This is a stunning poem and art book about the first snowfall of winter. The pictures are a combination of paper collage and watercolors and are so beautiful. The poem itself might get lost on small children, but the beauty of it would be worth a read anyway, because understanding each sentence is not always as important as being washed over in a beautiful cascade of language. ( )

Ojibwe artist Leo Yerxa, who was raised on the Little Eagle Reserve in Ontario, examines the passing of the seasons in this poetic picture-book, with its meditative text and breathtakingly lovely collage artwork. Opening with a textually dense evocation of the dawn of time - "Long ago, before time / Before sunlight burst across the universe / to give light to the heart of a dark green forest" - it moves on to the simpler (textually speaking, anyway) tale of a canoeing trip through the late autumn landscape, and the coming - in the night that the narrator and his companion are sleeping out underneath the stars - of winter, with its first snow.

Told in free verse, Last Lead First Snowflake to Fall presents some challenges for young readers, in that the introductory portion is so very long - two picture-book sized pages, full of text - and in that it lacks any punctuation. Still, the narrative has its own cadence, reinforced by the line breaks, and if the reader/listener has the attention span to get through it, they will be rewarded. The collage illustrations, by contrast, are immediately accessible, and are simply beautiful! I've only experienced one other Yerxa title - Ancient Thunder, which was likewise beautiful - but am fully convinced that he is an artist of immense talent, and look forward to reading any of his future efforts. ( )