Member Reviews

Any books that help preserve native languages and display the culture and relevance of the native people today, as they still exist, are desperately need. There isn't much of a story and some of the illustrations are a little rough, but this is still strongly recommended.

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A cute book for littles about the importance of water, and also introduces them to a new language, Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe). The illustrations are colorful and cute, and the message of all the things that water does for us and that we should take car of it and respect it is a good one. I enjoyed learning the Ojibwe words in the text, and appreciated the pronunciation guide in the back of the book. It's good to see books for children that highlight Native American culture, and I really hope to see more!

#NibiIsWater #NetGalley

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As a quick kids read, this was wonderful. It taught the importance of water, of another culture, etc and also included a pronunciation guide at the end. I would highly recommend!

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It is a poem , in two languages about nibi.
Nibi is our water, which is essential in every aspect of life.
Artwork is lovely, there is one illustration after each line.
It is a nice book to teach kids about importance of water and necessity of preserving it.
A cute little book to read to little kids.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for lovely book.

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Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

I loved this book. I love it's message about the importance of water and the different forms of water. I loved the introduction to the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek language and culture. I did have to look up the author to find out what language the book was in, hopefully the final published copy will have information on that.

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A great picture book to introduce another language (even if you don't speak it, the book has a pronunciation guide in the back) and a different way of seeing to young children. The perfect introduction to water conservation and respect for the Earth.

The illustrations include a wide variety of children from different cultures.

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A very useful and engaging title to use with children as they think about the importance of respecting, protecting and enjoying water. Told from an Anishinaabe perspective, this book emphasizes a caring perspective. An introduction or. back matter identifying this perspective would help, as readers only get clues from the back cover.

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This is a very short picture book that shows water-related words for water (nibi) in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) and English. For each word or phrase, there is a simple illustration and the words in both English and Anishinaabemowin.

I really wish the pronunciation for each word was on the page of the word, instead of at the end of the book. It will be hard for many English speakers to know how to pronounce the words without flipping back and forth. Many Anishinaabemowin words are quite long and can be difficult to pronounce for folks who aren't familiar with the language.

That said, the words are wonderful in that they not just tell expected water-related words (lap, swim, sip...) but phrases showing the importance of water and protecting it. It's also wonderful that nature is shown in many of the illustrations, like a monarch sipping nectar for sip.

This is another great book to add to the recent influx of picture books teaching Native American languages and showing native perspectives. As a Minnesotan who now lives in Dakota territory and went to high school in Anishinabe territory, I'm so glad to see these long-overdue resources available for children today.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

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I'm not really sure how to review this book. It was much shorter than I anticipated and had roughly 5 words per page.

I think it's fantastic that other cultures and languages (in this case Ojibwa) are recieving representation.

This book shows the importance of water and has some cute and funny illustrations to go along with it.

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There are niche books to review and there are niche books to review. This is a brief but clever poem in praise of water, and of how we should accept everyone's use of it (from bears paddling through it to flip salmon out, to wheelchair users finding freedom in swimming in pools of it). Oh, and it's a dual-language volume, with English and what we call Ojibwe. So, what, dear reader, is the bit of this book I liked and respected the most – was it the laugh it gave me with the woman finding her laundry had shrunk in the wash, was it the perfectly decent portrayal of the message, or the fact it will help very few people I could never hope to meet, that currently live thousands of miles away scattered about the Great Lakes areas and Canada? You decide – I decided quite quickly that this bore no flaws, neither major nor minor, and for the intended audience is spot on. I know it's a hellishly small audience, but I just love the fact people love languages and their cultural inheritance and books enough to produce such a thing. Kindergartens in the areas concerned should definitely click 'buy' for this.

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Not as expansive as I'd expected but still a good intro to Ojibwe water-related terminology. Lovely illustrations and a crucial pronunciation guide at the end facilitate language learning.

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I read this book last night and I thought it was a great introduction to the beliefs or other cultures.

This book is dual language between Anishinaabemowin and English and it has the emphasis on how important water is to all life and should be treasured and protected, we shouldn’t take clean water and a good supply for granted as not everyone is fortunate to have this. The book is aimed at toddlers and above.

The images were nice and they really supported the story. The glossary at the end was good too an it showed the pronunciation of the different words that are unfamiliar to most people.

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Beautifully yet simply illustrated, NIBI IS WATER is a gorgeous primer about water and it's sacred role in Indigenous culture.

This book is being marketed as a children's book, but it is also a terrific resource for those who are interested in learning a few important words in the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) traditional language.

Wouldn't it be amazing if people in Canada (and elsewhere) picked an Indigenous language and learned to speak it fluently. I, for one, would love to learn to speak this lyrical and gentle language. After reading this book and repeating the words outloud over and over again, I have made my first steps to making this a reality.

As I was reading through the pages and enjoying the incredible artwork, I was wishing that there was a pronunciation guide. Little did I know that my wish was about to be granted. On the final page of the book is a pronunciation primer that spells out each word phonetically. I was very pleased.

Canada's shameful history of it's treatment of Indigenous peoples has been exposed, but has not yet been fully stopped. Water is life and too many Indigenous lands contain polluted and contaminated water supplies. This needs to be fixed and reading and purchasing books such as this one is a start.

I rate NIBI IS WATER as 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and would like to thank NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing me with a free advance copy of this book.

Pre-Order your copy today and come back and let me know what you thought of it once it officially releases in April 2020.

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This is a great book to introduce the Anishinaabemowin language, in this case, the really important fact that water is life, and important with everything we do.

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The end of the book has a glossary that explains the pronunciation.

Wonderful book to have to remind us of the importance of water in life, as well as learning the words of this First Nation language.

Thanks to Netgallely for making this book available for an honest review.

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