4 Classic Children’s Books Adapted for Indigenous Youths

At Anderson Therapy Services, we have amazing opportunities to work directly with children from First Nations Communities in Northern Ontario via teletherapy. Our team has collected a number of resources and materials that have been adapted for the Northern Culture.

Many classic children’s books contain vocabulary and language that are not as common in the North, which is why the Kwayaciiwin Education Resource Centre (KERC) has provided us with books that have been adapted from popular children’s books.

These books feature similar story lines, but include vocabulary and concepts that are important to the aboriginal culture. What’s great about these books is that they have been written in Oji-Cree as well! Here is a list of 4 books that we use often that have been adapted from classic children’s books:

“Black Bear, Black Bear” by Diane Ellis

(adapted from “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle)

We use this book to help children work on their literacy skills, articulation and vocabulary. This book is very similar to the classic by Eric Carle, but features animals that are more commonly seen in Northern Ontario such as a moose and martin.

“Chubby the Caterpillar” by Laurence Hay

(adapted from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle)

This is a great book for targeting counting, sequencing and food vocabulary. This book is very similar to the classic by Eric Carle, but includes foods, like bannock that are associated with the native culture. Yum!

“The Mitten” by Diane Ellis

(adapted from “The Mitten” by Jan Brett)

This is another fun book for targeting animal vocabulary. This version of “The Mitten” is very similar to the classic by Jan Brett but features different animals that are more commonly seen up North (e.g., the fox and the black bear).

“Squirrels” by Ballena Anderson

(adapted from “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed” by Eileen Christelow)

This is a funny book that we use often to work on counting. It is very similar to the “Five Little Monkeys” series by Eileen Christelow, but instead of monkeys it features mischievous squirrels that are jumping in a tree!

Learn More About Our Telepractice Services

If you are interested in learning more about our speech and language telepractice services, please contact us today to speak to one of our speech and language professionals. Our team of speech-language pathologists and communicative disorders assistants has been providing speech, language and literacy support to northern communities via telepractice for over a decade. We would be delighted to answer any questions or concerns you may have.