while this children's book is quite short it sure packs a punch! this has to be the most beautifully illustrated children's book i have ever read. the illustrations perfectly matched the story being told, and the bold colours highlighted the power of its message. i thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend for all ages.

I only wish this book was longer! Beautiful illustrations and books like this that talk about a group of people's history and culture are so important!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Magic Words by Edward Field is an amazing children's book that retells a traditional Inuit creation story with gorgeous artwork. The story revolves around ancient times, when humans could become animals, and animals could become humans, when everyone spoke the same language. According to the description, "it captures beautifully the intimate relationship this Arctic people have with their natural world."

Overall, Magic Words is a beautiful children's book that will appeal to anyone looking to learn more about another culture, and Inuit culture in particular. One highlight of this book is the drop-dead gorgeous artwork. The colors are amazing, and the art style is inspired by traditional Inuit art. The only complaint that I have is that the book felt very short, and I wish it were longer. If you're intrigued by the description, I highly recommend that you check out this book, which is available now!

This is a beautiful children's picture book rendition of an Intuit story. The art work is stunning, the tale is magical while being simple enough to read with a child. I really can't say enough good things about this one. It sparks the imagination and fosters creativity. Highly engaging for parent and child. My only disappointment is that it ended too quickly and I only had the digital version to read. I have no doubt this is so much more stunning as a physical copy. I also would love some more intuit tales. This felt a little bit like an introduction to intuit folklore to me. I want more. My two year old wants more.

I strongly recommend this. Five stars.

I received an arc digital copy but my opinions are my own.

The illustrations of this book are beautiful. The text is a translation of an Inuit poem; The ideas are expansive and invite one to join in wonder; however, the text comes to such an abrupt end and one is left with confusion.

When reading a book, whether it be for children or adults, I think it is important to understand that questioning the authenticity of stories is good. This is a case wherein the genuine sentiment & sincerity of the work does not carry-out within the book as neither Field nor Blanc are Inuit & though their source material (Danish expedition notes) might have come from a person who worked alongside the Inuit in 1921, to transcribe some of their oral traditions...I very much doubt this to be the case.

This is certainly not the first book in the history of the world which has an author at the stern, steering the plot through a culture which is not their own. I suspect it is safe to predict, it shall not be the last.

The illustrations by Blanc are beautiful, that is not up for debate. However, they are from the perspective of an outsider of the culture, of the reality of the Inuit, therefore they do not hold weight in terms of accurately representing what a first person point of view would be as an Inuit describing the power of 'magic words'. As an artist I am certain that Blanc has grown his portfolio from his keen observations & developed his skills to represent a number of perspectives. Having scrolled through his website, I can confidently assume that to be the case. I do not wish to take away from his skills as an artist as I did very much enjoy the effort he put forth in the illustrations.

This did not feel like a piece of literature which could or should be credited to a 'translator', in this case, Field, the author. There are so few lines within this book that it leads to the question; who is this for? A child would most certainly fixate on the illustrations to render some sense to the 'story'. Though, I doubt very much that cherry-picking pieces of a traditional tale can count as a full story. Regardless, the words utilized within this piece do not shed much light on the girth of the belief. We are simply 'translated' that words carry importance & value. Perhaps this is a good thing to know, generally. However, that leads the question; why not just write a story from your own cultural point of view about the importance & value of meaning what you say & being thoughtful in your speech?

When reading this piece I wondered what the purpose was. As an adult I understand that the sharing of stories, traditions & practices helps us grow as individuals to well-rounded people in the world. Should this story have sought to achieve that it would have been to its benefit to work with Inuit authors, illustrators & Elders. They should have been at the forefront. For that reason, their absence is acutely felt in this story & I am left feeling a great pang of longing where their absence resides.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vanita Books, & Edward Field for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

#MagicWords #NetGalley

The illustrations in this book were full of life and colour. They made this a fun book to look at. I thought that the text was good, but very short. I think the book could have had more text on each page, or a few more pages, to make the story a little longer and allow the reader to spend more time reading the beautiful book.

Although I understand it is a story that has been passed down, it felt unfinished, unwrapped up. I could definitely use this book as a lesson about empathy and “getting in another beings’ shoes,” or body, as so goes the story. And perhaps the kids could write a reason for why this happened and why it stopped. But I felt like it ended so abruptly, it would feel good to have the author make a generalization about why, or what the people claim might be the reason?

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

4/5 - Liked it quite a bit.

I have to admit that the content of this book was a little disappointing and if I were rating this book on words alone, I would probably give it a 3 or even a 2. It is extremely short and starts off with an odd introduction in which the author says he used to think the word "eskimo" was equivalent to the Inuits without qualifying that this word is considered offensive and even a slur among may indigenous populations.

I grew up in Russia and was exposed to a lot of northern Indigenous mythology through the books I read as a child, so I was hoping for similar stories to the ones I encountered - ones filled with magic in a wintry darkness, mystical animals, and deep ties with nature. The last theme was explored, but because the whole story was just a short poem it was so brief and left me wanting more.

However, the illustrations in the book were stunning and bumped my rating up quite a bit. I loved how the spirit of animals and people being interchangeable was etched into the background images. The illustrations were epic and spine-tingling. I felt that childish joy of sitting at the edge of a fire on a dark freezing night, waiting for words to transport me to a time forgotten - a time of great power and wonderous adventure. The only odd illustration was one which featured as very European-looking mermaid who seemed a little out of place in an Inuit story.

Overall, I would get this book just for the pictures - but I do wish this was a longer book with a more cohesive narrative rather than just a poem.

Colourful, imaginative and and great illustrations.

However, there was no inuit in put. It's their myth yet it is translated and written by white men.

That was kind of a big let down for me.

I would have liked for this to be an Indigenous own voices story. It seems like the author/translator has pulled from some Inuit sources as indicated from their past works, but there is no indication here of what those sources are. Frankly, it feels like the publishers are hiding behind "translator" here because they don't indicate the source of their oral traditions (and that is certainly a standard thing in Indigenous literature --even when taking content from interviews or songs).

As mentioned in previous reviews on this publisher, the end pages indicate that they intend to donate a percentage to charitable means, but they are not Indigenous focused ones. This work while an interesting approach to animism takes the ideas and culture of Indigenous peoples and takes money that could go back to Native communities through their creators or organizations out of their pockets.

This book contained the most stunning illustrations which encourages young readers to immerse themselves into Inuit culture. I enjoyed how the story highlighted the importance of language as well as demonstrating the fact that humans and animals are alike.

I know this was originally published about a decade ago, so I take some things with a grain of salt. Still, I can't help but notice that this book doesn't seem to have any native names attached to the project. The artwork is stunning but was there not a native artist who could represent their own stories or a native who could translate a story that they would know better than an outsider? Preserving native peoples' stories is important, but it should be done minimally with consultation/input from a native person. I'm sure there are illustrated books out there by native people that would be more beneficial than this one, as lovely as the artwork is.

Thank you to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful and stunning illustrations provided inside the book. Beautiful way to introduce kids about Inuit culture (which is new for me too). I love the magical vibes this book offered inside. A must read in a family. Thank you Netgalley for providing this book.

Magic Words invites adults and children into the magical world of Inuit Culture; a culture that has an extremely intimate relationship with the natural world (and one I enjoy learning more and more about). This journey to a place where humans and animals share bodies and languages could be a wonderful starting point for some exciting and imaginative lessons with learners of all ages. The exploring and researching Inuit and other cultures, geography lessons, and art lessons based on the phenomenal illustrations that bring the words to life are just some of the possibilities. I struggle with having a close relationship with nature, so any story that reminds me of the importance of that relationship, hits me in a profound way.

Fun book for any classroom! The illustrations really bring this to life, a lovely book for any home or educational setting.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

The illustrations in this short book are absolutely stunning. Some of the best images in recent memory. However; while I loved the brief introduction to Inuit mythology and the ide that all of nature and humanity is interconnected the text is really lacking. It won’t satisfy most readers to hear that humans and animals used to speak the same language and humans words were magic without explanation. The books ends by saying no one no why these things were. They just were. I wanted to know more about the animals and the magical happenings that humans brought about simply by their words. I rounded up because visually this is a masterpiece.

Reading how the world came into being through the Inuit Cosmology was made even more beautiful by the amazingly gorgeous illustrations throughout it all. It’s, bold, it’s bright and colourful and fits each section so nicely.

This poem shows the power that words hold and people’s role within this creation and within the world. Showing how there is no difference between people and animals and how they all spoke the same language. I throughly enjoyed this read, especially with the addition of the illustrations. This is something that is completely different to how the origins are told where I live and it was great to read and discover something new from a different culture. I honestly think I prefer this origins beginning compared to others and for that reason it is going to stay with me for a while.

I’m not somebody who is usually drawn to poetry and I wouldn’t claim to know how it is meant to be perceived, but I do know how this made me feel. I wish that it was a little longer, but maybe the shortness of it is what makes it beautiful, especially when you think about how much is provided and told, in such few words. I also have to admit that it was the illustrations of this book/poem that made this even better and I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much without the words being brought to life on the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vanita Books for providing this review copy!

This is a truly magical picture book designed to inspire wonder in the earliest readers.
The art is beautiful and the colors used are vibrant and striking.
This book is a wonderful way to introduce children to the Inuit culture and it will undoubtedly set their imagination running wild thinking about all the possibilities of words and the adventures they can lead to.

Magic Words is a fantastic children’s book. Translated from the Inuit language it is accompanied with the most beautiful drawings and vibrant colours. My children enjoyed the drawings of animals and we sat and cuddled while they named all the different animals in the story. They loved hearing about the magic of humans being animals and animals turning into humans.
What a great book. Recommend to all families of young curious ones.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a free copy of this book.