Book review: Amik

By Carrie MacKenzie

Amik is written and illustrated Sharon King, a Potawatomi from Wasauksing First Nation. This beautiful children’s book follows Amik, or beaver in the Anishinaabemowin, as he and other animals go through their day. The story is written in Anishinaabemowin with the English translation underneath. This book is geared towards children ages three to six.

Amik has a tone that is cheerful and soothing. It is age appropriate, allowing the audience to focus on the story and the beauty of the illustrations, fostering a love of reading in the young audience. What further enhances this tone is the story itself: it is beautiful in its simplicity.

The illustrations in the story are beautiful. Ms. King created them using cut–paper collage and tissue paper. The use of tissue paper adds dimension and texture to the images.  They are colourful and bright, perfect for the story and the age of the target audience. The colours used are soothing, realistic and not overly bright.  This creates a sense of calmness and stillness. The illustrations’ beauty and charm catch and keep the audiences’ attention while at the same time allowing the audience to focus on the words, this is especially important if they are just learning their language.  All of this adds to the cheerful and gentle tone of the story.

These illustrations also show another way of creating pictures or art in general.  The audience sees that pictures can be created in diverse ways, not just with pencils, paint, or markers.  What you can use to create illustrations is limited only by your imagination.

The length of Amik is another feature making this book suitable for this age group and foster a love of reading.  This story is 12-pages long, so it is not too long so that the child loses interest and not to short, which would leave the narrative feeling rushed, something that would be felt by the child.

Another feature that keeps the audience engaged is the characters appearing in this story. All the characters are animals, something children love. While many children’s books have animals as characters, what makes Amik different is that the main character is a beaver instead of the more common dog or cat. As a result, it peaks the audiences’ interest and keeps their attention on the story.  It might also introduce them to animals that they are not that familiar with, prompting them to ask questions about animals.

This story is written in Anishinaabemowin with the English translation underneath. This exposes the audience to two languages. For the children who are being read to by an Elder who speaks Anishinaabemowin they will get to appreciate the richness and depth of their language when it comes to describing things in nature as compared to the English language.  For children who may not have been exposed to other languages, seeing and hearing another one may spark an interest in other languages. This also may start the family on a path to reclaiming their language.  The child’s interest might spread to the rest of the family helping the family reconnect with their language and culture.

Amik is a story that would be a beautiful and thoughtful addition to any child’s library or any elementary school library.

Sharon King, Amik, Kegedonce Press, 2021.

ISBN: 978-1-928120-28-5