Runs with the Stars

by Darcy Whitecrow, Heather M. O'Connor, Lenny Lishchenko (Illustrator)

Overview

“Elders say they were always here. The horses were small, but strong.”
“Like me?”
“Like you.”

As they await the birth of a new foal, a man teaches his grandchild about the Ojibwe Horses that used to roam the forests of northwestern Ontario. The horses once ran wild and free, but when Grandfather was a boy, they almost disappeared. Now he is the caretaker of his own small herd, keeping the breed alive for future generations and teaching his grandchild about the loving bond between human and animals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781772602388
Publisher:	Second Story Press
Publication date:	05/03/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	150,474
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Darcy Whitecrow is Ojibwe and Dakota; he is a member of the Seine River First Nation band in Northwestern Ontario, where he lives. Darcy practices traditional lifestyles like trapping, fishing, and ricing, as well as traditional spirituality in both the Midewiwin and Sundance traditions. With his partner, Kim, they have started a non-profit, Grey Raven Ranch, where they have been raising and caring for the Ojibwe Horses for the last decade to help preserve the breed and the tradition of symbiotic interaction with the Ojibwe people.

Heather M. O’Connor is an award-winning children’s author and freelance writer based in Peterborough, Ontario. She first learned about Ojibwe Horses while writing for the Ontario Parks blog and quickly became obsessed.

Lenny Lishchenko is not a boy. She is an illustrator, graphic designer, and comics maker who will never give up the chance to draw a good birch tree. Ukrainian-born and Canadian-raised, she’s interested in telling stories that people remember years later in the early mornings, when everything is quiet and still. She is based out of Burlington, Ontario.

What People are Saying About This

International Board on Books for Young People Canada.

2020–2022 From Sea to Sea to Sea: Celebrating Indigenous Picture Books collection, curated by International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Canada.

Editorial Reviews

04/04/2022

Debut author Whitecrow (Ojibwe and Dakota) and O’Connor (Fast Friends) weave a history of wild-roaming Ojibwe horses around western Lake Superior with the intergenerational story of an Ojibwe seven-year-old awaiting the birth of a foal. To ease the waiting, Mishoomis shares how, during his grandfather’s time, “herds of Ojibwe Horses ran in the woods, like the deer,” helping “our people travel, haul wood, and go trapping.” Eventually, though, snowmobiles replaced the slight, strong horses (“You feed a snow machine only when you use it”), and the herd grew smaller, until the remaining few were bred with a mustang, eventually increasing their numbers. Mishoomis explains, “I didn’t want you to grow up without them,” highlighting the grandchild’s arrival on the same day as his first foal, and the family’s enduring and continuing relationship with a precious Indigenous species. In textural art, Lishchenko (In My Anaana’s Amautik) conjures images of the herds, the protagonists, and the interplay between nature and technology. Back matter details additional efforts to save the herd. Publishing simultaneously in a multilingual (Anishinaabemowin/English) edition. Ages 6–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Illustrated with celestial delight by Burlington based artist Lenny Lishchenko, whose graphic work frames the story with an earthy, almost animate backdrop. While Runs With the Stars can be read as a parable of ecological resilience, the driving force is the true story of the Ojibwe horse itself. And who better to tell the story than Whitecrow.”

The Walleye - Tyler Muzzin

"Moving, meditative, and a great way to talk to children about the natural world, Runs with the Stars is a powerful addition to the picture book landscape."

Open Book