I sang you down from the stars

Select an Action

Title:

I sang you down from the stars

Author:

Spillett-Sumner, Tasha, 1988- author.

Goade, Michaela, illustrator.

Summary:

As she waits for the arrival of her new baby, a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle. A white feather, cedar and sage, a stone from the river . . . Each addition to the bundle will offer the new baby strength and connection to tradition, family, and community. As they grow together, mother and baby will each have gifts to offer each other. Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Michaela Goade, two Indigenous creators, bring beautiful words and luminous art together in a resonant celebration of the bond between mother and child. -- Amazon.

Audience:

Ages 4-8. Little, Brown and Company.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 27 cm

Genre:

Picture books.

Program Information:

Lexile 640L.

F&P M.

Subject Term:

Infants -- Juvenile fiction.

Mother and child -- Juvenile fiction.

Indians of North America -- Juvenile fiction.

Cree Indians -- Juvenile fiction.

Author(s):

Goade, Michaela,

Publisher:

Little, Brown and Company,

Publication Date:

2021

ISBN:

9780316493161

Publication Information:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2021.

Award Note:

American Indian Youth Literature Award - Picture Book, Honor Book, 2022

Call Number:

P SPILLETTSUMNER

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003559039	Picture Books	SPILLETTSUMNER	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A New York Times bestseller!

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book

This unique baby book sings with Native cultural detail, while striking a universal chord in its celebration of the blossoming of love that comes with expecting and welcoming a new baby--with art by New York Times bestselling illustrator and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade

As she waits for the arrival of her new baby, a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle. A white feather, cedar and sage, a stone from the river . . .

Each addition to the bundle will offer the new baby strength and connection to tradition, family, and community. As they grow together, mother and baby will each have gifts to offer each other.

Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Michaela Goade, two Indigenous creators, bring beautiful words and luminous art together in a resonant celebration of the bond between mother and child.

Author Notes

Tasha Spillett-Sumner is a Cree and Trinidadian award-winning poet and author who is also working on her doctoral degree in Indigenous land-based education. She makes her home in Treaty 1 territory, Manitoba, where she raises her daughter, Isabella, with her husband.

Michaela Goade (Tlingit) is a Caldecott Medalist and a #1 New York Times bestselling artist. She is the illustrator of a number of award-winning and bestselling books, including We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and her own Berry Song . She is from the Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi clan from Sitka, Alaska, where she currently lives. She invites you to visit her online at michaelagoade.com.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

"I loved you before I met you./ Before I held you in my arms,/ I sang you down from the stars," begins Spillett-Sumner's gentle tale, which shares, per an author's note, "the traditional understanding of my Nation, the Inniniwak, and many other Indigenous peoples globally: that babies choose their parents." As an Indigenous woman sings to the sky, a shooting star leads her to a white eagle feather, beginning her journey to create a "sacred medicine bundle" for her unborn child that's filled with items from nature--a feather, sage and cedar, a "star blanket," and a smooth stone from the river. When the child arrives, she relays how these items will keep the baby connected to their Native identity. Caldecott Medalist Goade (who is Tlingit) contributes enchantingly expansive, star-stippled landscapes done in watercolor and mixed media, with a semi-translucent ribbon of stars tracing the connection between "all living things." A tender celebration of parenthood that will resonate with Native and non-Native readers alike. Back matter includes an author's and an artist's note. Ages 4--8. (Apr.)