I Sang You Down from the Stars

by Tasha Spillett, Michaela Goade (Illustrator)

Overview

A New York Times bestseller!

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book

This unique baby book sings with Native cultural detail, while striking a universal chord in its celebration of the blossoming of love that comes with expecting and welcoming a new baby—with art by New York Times bestselling illustrator and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade
 
As she waits for the arrival of her new baby, a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle. A white feather, cedar and sage, a stone from the river . . .

Each addition to the bundle will offer the new baby strength and connection to tradition, family, and community. As they grow together, mother and baby will each have gifts to offer each other.

Tasha Spillett and Michaela Goade, two Indigenous creators, bring beautiful words and luminous art together in a resonant celebration of the bond between mother and child.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316493161
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	66,470
Product dimensions:	10.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Tasha Spillett is a Cree and Trinidadian award-winning poet and author who is also working on her doctoral degree in Indigenous land-based education. She makes her home in Treaty 1 territory, Manitoba, where she raises her daughter, Isabella, with her husband.

Michaela Goade (Tlingit) is a Caldecott Medalist and a #1 New York Times bestselling artist. She is the illustrator of a number of award-winning and bestselling books, including We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and her own Berry Song. She is from the Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi clan from Sitka, Alaska, where she currently lives. She invites you to visit her online at michaelagoade.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/01/2021

“I loved you before I met you./ Before I held you in my arms,/ I sang you down from the stars,” begins Spillett-Sumner’s gentle tale, which shares, per an author’s note, “the traditional understanding of my Nation, the Inniniwak, and many other Indigenous peoples globally: that babies choose their parents.” As an Indigenous woman sings to the sky, a shooting star leads her to a white eagle feather, beginning her journey to create a “sacred medicine bundle” for her unborn child that’s filled with items from nature—a feather, sage and cedar, a “star blanket,” and a smooth stone from the river. When the child arrives, she relays how these items will keep the baby connected to their Native identity. Caldecott Medalist Goade (who is Tlingit) contributes enchantingly expansive, star-stippled landscapes done in watercolor and mixed media, with a semi-translucent ribbon of stars tracing the connection between “all living things.” A tender celebration of parenthood that will resonate with Native and non-Native readers alike. Back matter includes an author’s and an artist’s note. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

*"Gorgeous, shimmering, heartfelt."—Kirkus

"...will make a beautiful gift for an expecting family."—Shelf Awareness

"A tender celebration of parenthood."—Publishers Weekly

"I Sang You Down From the Stars marvelously conveys not only the bonds between mother and child but also the multitude of connections that await every child—connections to family, community and Earth itself."—BookPage

"The care and love felt through the pages of the illustrations are dreamlike and ethereal."—Schoool Library Journal

"This story will be appreciated wherever newborns are celebrated."—Booklist

From the Publisher

★ 06/25/2021

PreS—A heart-warming story from an Indigenous perspective about a mother preparing for her baby's entrance into the world. Spillett-Sumner is Inniniwak and shares with readers how a sacred medicine bundle is created for a child with natural elements such as sage, cedar, stone, and eagle plume. The care and love felt through the pages of the illustrations are dreamlike and ethereal. Readers follow the mother and baby's journey through the seasons and explanations of the medicine bundle and traditional teachings. The emotions stirred by word choices and visual elements can be overwhelmingly tender. In a moment where the mother stitches a star blanket with the help of her family, she is then shown spending time alone to complete it. During this time, she says something that captures the essence of the book, "With each stitch, I whispered a prayer for you and thought about wrapping you up warm and safe, just like you are now in my belly." VERDICT Recommended for all libraries especially those with baby programs and other early literacy initiatives.—Danielle Burbank, San Juan Coll., Farmington, NM

School Library Journal

★ 2021-02-09
Anticipation, pregnancy, and the birth of a baby are celebrated in this story from Spillett-Sumner (Inniniwak) and Caldecott medalist Goade (Tlingit).

When a baby chooses its mother, special gatherings of family and community are held to prepare for the child’s arrival. Sacred items are collected and placed in a medicine bundle to be given to the baby at birth. These items will keep the growing child’s connection to their identity strong. Spillett-Sumner’s lyrical text begins as an Indigenous mother plans the journey with her unborn child. “Before I held you in my arms, I sang you down from the stars.” When she finds a white eagle plume, it becomes “the first gift in a bundle that will be yours.” The young mother finds more items for her child’s bundle: cedar, sage, a “star blanket,” and a special river stone “so that you always remember that you belong to this place.” The baby arrives in the spring, “with the waters that come when the ice breaks and the rivers flow again.” Goade uses a white “swoosh” of stars throughout the illustrations to intertwine traditional origin stories with a family’s experience of “love and joy” upon the arrival of the new baby, in scenes that pulse with both emotions. Author and illustrator each contribute a note describing how they drew upon their respective cultural traditions to inform their work, which will open the book up to a wide range of readers.

Gorgeous, shimmering, heartfelt. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews