SkySisters

Reviewed: September 22, 2003
By: Jan Boudreau Waboose / Illustrated by: Brian Deines
Publisher: KidsCan Press
32 pages, $15.95

As we move into the season of dark, cold nights and Northern Lights, it seems a good time to look at this story of two Ojibway sisters in Northern Ontario.

As Alex and Allie bundle up to get ready for the arrival of the SkySpirits, they engage in the same sort of teasing banter that you might hear anywhere. Out in the meadow, near the forest, away from the house, they become more of team, more equal. Snapping off icicles to suck on, they are startled first by a rabbit and then by a deer. After pulling each other up Coyote Hill, they throw caution to the winds and howl a reply to the lonely voices in the night. Then they dance, make snow angels, and wait for the arrival of the SkySpirits, which roll in on a wave of shimmering colours.

Jan Boudreau Waboose has created a story in which you can almost feel yourself walking through a special night in perfect weather. Brian Deines’s oil paintings complete the illusion.

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