Shellfish saga should delight little squirts

Alego is the title of a new children’s book about a young Inuk girl who goes out to gather clams with her grandmother.
Getting squirted in the eye by a clam surprises Alego, the main character in the recently-published, bilingual children’s book, Alego.
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Alego is the title of a new children’s book about a young Inuk girl who goes out to gather clams with her grandmother.
Getting squirted in the eye by a clam surprises Alego, the main character in the recently-published, bilingual children’s book, Alego.

Getting squirted in her eye by a clam shocks Alego, the main character in Alego, a sweet book about a young girl who goes out clam digging with her grandmother.

Cape Dorset artist Ningeokuluk Teevee wrote and illustrated Alego, published last month by Groundwood Books in Ontario.

The book’s easy-going text, written in English and Inuktitut syllabics, will appeal to children aged four to seven— no matter which language they speak.

During her excursion to gather clams, Alego explores tide pools along the shore and discovers the bright orange starfish, snails, sculpins and creepy, crawly ugunnait which live there.

Teevee dedicated Alego to Ohito, Ekidlua, Isa, Akiruk and her grandmother, who used to take her clam digging.

Known as a printmaker, Teevee’s work has often been included in the West Baffin Cooperative’s annual Cape Dorset print collection.

In Alego, Teevee’s pencil drawings catch memorable details of the landscape and people, through the eye of a child. For example, a view of Cape Dorset shows larger-than-life water trucks and houses, which is how they would look to Alego.

The translation of the text into English by Nina Manning-Toonoo conveys the just right tone for the story and uses language that young children will understand and adults will find easy to read, again and again.

The English version of Alego also tries to teach some Inuktitut words, such as those for grandmother, clams, sea lice, sculpins— and delicious.

And a glossary in Alego provides translations of the words for the sea creatures Alego meets.

Alego
Groundwood Books, 24 pages
Hardcover: ISBN 978-0-88899-943-6
$17.95