Vickers, Roy Henry and Robert Budd. Orca Chief. Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 2015.
What are the stories that make you feel like you’ve come home? What are the myths of other cultures that remind you of your own spiritual values? Whenever I read a picture book by Roy Henry Vickers, I feel a sense of timelessness, as if a thousand days were but one day and the people of long ago could be the people of today. As if the story I’m reading is the same as the stories I heard as a child, just with a different setting. Orca Chief, the third in a trilogy of legends set in the Pacific Northwest, tells the story of four fishermen who are too exhausted to be respectful of life beneath the waves. Patiently but firmly, the orcas teach the four how to care for the environment and safely provide for their village. The fishermen learn to seek forgiveness, change their ways, and celebrate life with thankfulness. The flow of the writing, the elegance of the illustrations, and the flawless design make this a book for everyone. Buy it. Keep it. Read it aloud and to yourself, regularly. 

More stories from indigenous people of North America

A writing lesson using Gary Paulsen’s account of his encounter with a whale