In Be a Good Ancestor, Canadian authors Leona Prince and Gabrielle Prince, issue this simple, four-word request to readers as an inspiring call to action. The authors, who are sisters, have written a poignant picturebook with themes of interconnectedness and stewardship that will resonate with readers of all ages. The repetition of the phrase, “Be a good Ancestor,” in each stanza invites readers to contemplate their roles as ancestors of future generations. Readers will hopefully recognize that the actions (or inactions) they take today have consequences that will last for decades to come. Each double-page spread features a unique call focused on the environment and on living beings, both human and non-human:
Be a good Ancestor with water
Be a good Ancestor with the land
Be a good Ancestor with living things that swim
Each call to action introduces a poetic stanza that begins with something seemingly insignificant on its own — a raindrop, a seed, an egg. Then, like a pebble tossed into water, the connections from the insignificant ripple out to the significant and the consequential — life, oxygen, nourishment. The first stanza in the picturebook begins with raindrops:
Raindrops become puddles
Puddles become streams
Streams become rivers
Rivers become life
The absence of punctuation throughout means that each stanza flows into the next. Page after page, the flow of text symbolizes to readers the interconnectedness of the earth’s ecosystem. Readers might interpret the absence of punctuation in the last line of the picturebook to mean that this call to action flows beyond the pages of the text, thus inviting them to continue the narrative with connections to their own lives.
Carla Joseph’s acrylic illustrations on watercolor paper also convey the interconnectedness of earth’s ecosystem. Each double-page spread features smaller visual vignettes that illustrate the narrative to support the reader’s comprehension. One stanza explains that, “Eggs become fry, Fry become alevins, Alevins become sockeyes” [punctuation added]. Joseph’s illustrations clarify vocabulary and constructs that might be new to readers such as the stages of growth for sockeye salmon.
To date, Be a Good Ancestor has been awarded the 2023 Forest of Reading Blue Spruce Award and received a commendation from the Canadian Children’s Book Centre as a 2022 Best Books for Kids and Teens. In May 2023, Be a Good Ancestor was short-listed for the 2023 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award.
One way that readers can explore Be a Good Ancestor is to pair it with other books with similar themes such as We Are Water Protectors (Lindstrom, 2020), and We Are All Connected: Caring for Each Other and The Earth (Garcia, 2022). Another way to explore the text is through response strategies:
• Create a Venn Diagram to record comparisons of Be a Good Ancestor and a similar picturebook.
• Write and then illustrate additional stanzas for Be a Good Ancestor that connect with the themes of the picturebook.
• Take an observation walk to notice and note in a journal the ways that humans are being good stewards of the earth’s ecosystem.
-Recommended by Mary L. Fahrenbruck, Associate Professor, New Mexico State University
Title: Be a Good Ancestor
Authors: Leona Prince and Gabrielle Prince
Illustrator: Carla Joseph
ISBN: 9781459831407
Publisher: Orca
PubDate: May 17, 2022
Each month a committee of Worlds of Words advisors recommends a book published within the last year. Our hope is to spark conversations on our website and on social media about the book that expand global understandings and perceptions. Please join us by leaving a comment. You can also share your thoughts with us by using the hashtag #WOWRecommends on social media. Check out our alphabetical listing of all the books featured in WOW Recommends.
- Themes: Be a Good Ancestor, Carla Joseph, Gabrielle Prince, Leona Prince, Mary Fahrenbruck
- Descriptors: WOW Recommends