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CM . . .
. Volume XXI Number 22. . . .February 13, 2015
excerpt:
Sherry Ansloos is a Winnipeg, MB, educator, storyteller, singer and a songwriter. Her first book, I Loved Her (2010), was about a young Métis girl and the special relationship she had with her grandmother. In Fire Walker, Ansloos’ young heroine must go on a daring quest, one which tests her courage and determination to fulfill her destiny and to bring happiness back to her people’s village. Winnipeg illustrator Sheldon Dawson’s vibrant illustrations bring the story to life.
A young girl is told by her grandmother that she is the Fire Walker, Iskotew Opimohtew and must follow the fireflies, who are little Fire Walkers, to find the fiery star that fell from the eastern sky. The quest took months, and, in the end, the fiery star could not be found. Iskotew Opimohtew followed another star that fell in the south. After many months travel, she could still not find it. She then travelled west and north, but no fiery star was found. Then a star fell directly towards the center of the earth. Iskotew Opimohtew ran towards it and found the star. She wrapped it in her shawl and took it to her village. Soon all the camp fires were lit; the people were warm; and they cooked their meat and feasted. Although this simple quest tale is an often-told, the firefly as a miniature Fire Walker gives Ansloos’ story an ethereal, mythical quality seldom seen in modern story telling, all the more reason to enjoy seeing them and to read about them. Highly Recommended. Ian Stewart teaches at Cecil Rhodes School in Winnipeg, MB.
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Table of Contents for This Issue
- February 13, 2015. |
The story begins long, long ago with a catastrophe striking a Native village. The north wind “had rushed down through the smoke holes and churned within the tents-a cold that made your knees knock and teeth chatter. With a mighty gust, it blew out every fire in the village.” The Great Spirit informed the elders that a Fire Walker would have to find fire and bring it to the village.