A Walk on the Tundra

During the short Arctic summers, the tundra, covered most of the year under snow and ice, becomes filled with colourful flowers, mosses, shrubs, and lichens. These hardy little plants transform the northern landscape, as they take advantage of the warmer weather and long hours of sunlight. Caribou, lemmings, snow buntings, and many other wildlife species depend on tundra plants for food and nutrition, but they are not the only ones… A Walk on the Tundra follows Inuujaq, a little girl who travels with her grandmother onto the tundra. There, Inuujaq learns that these tough little plants are much more important to Inuit than she originally believed. In addition to an informative storyline that teaches the importance of Arctic plants, this book includes a field guide with photographs and scientific information about a wide array of plants found throughout the Arctic (Source).

Rebecca Hainnu lives in Clyde River with her daughters. She is also the author of The Spirit of the Sea. Her book A Walk on the Tundra, co-authoured with Anna Ziegler, was a finalist for the 2013 Canadian Children’s Literature Round Table Information Book Award, and was among the 2012 “Best Books for Kids and Teens,” as selected by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (Source).

Anna Ziegler is the principal of Arctic Willow Consulting, which specializes in program development and evaluation in community wellness, poverty reduction, and adult learning. She has completed graduate research on practices of archiving Inuit traditional knowledge. After living in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for fourteen years, she now resides in Ottawa, Ontario, and works on projects with groups across Inuit Nunangat. She is also the co-author, with Rebecca Hainnu and Aalasi Joamie, of Edible and Medicinal Arctic Plants: An Inuit Elder’s Perspective (Source).

Qin Leng is an illustrator and author of children books. She graduated from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and has spent almost two decades creating content for kids television. Throughout her career, Qin has illustrated picture books, chapter books, magazines and book covers with publishers around the world. Trèfle – Clover (written by Nadine Robert) was the winner of the Governor General Literary Award for best picturebook. Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin (by Chieri Uegaki) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, and received the APALA Award for best picture book. She lives in Toronto, with her husband and her son (Source).

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