A young Inuit girl named Alego ᐅᓕᒍᖅ goes clam digging with her Anaanatsiaq (grandmother). They live in a small community called Kinngait (Cape Dorset) on Baffin Island, Nunavut. This delicate tale portrays life in the Arctic with stark realism – a welcome change from the cartoon-ish polar bear characterizations of the North we often see.
Alego explores the inter-tidal zone, discovering the diversity of life on the sandy shore. After getting squirted by a clam burrowed in the sand, she collects clams, an orange starfish, a snail and a creepy, crawly ugunnait in her bucket.
The story is told in two languages – English and Inuktitut. It’s a treat to see the exotic Inuktitut syllabus, rarely seen outside of Nunavut. The pencil-crayon illustrations are simple and graceful. This is a very sweet, if subtle story, particularly pleasing to ages 3 and up.
Cape Dorset artist Ningeokuluk Teevee has been nominated for the 2009 Governor General's Award for children's literature illustration for Alego, her first children’s book. Groundwood Books 2009, 24 pages, $17.95 CAN
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