The Sasquatch, the Fire and the Cedar Baskets

September 15, 2020
A Kwantlen tale from the Pacific Northwest chronicles the life of a sasquatch orphaned by a forest fire. With imaginative language and humorous imagery, this picture book takes readers deep into the life of a friendly and contemplative sasquatch who ponders why he is such a curiosity to humans. Young readers will marvel as he grows from 9 feet to 12. When he emerges from a swim in the river, his hair is dripping with water, and he leaves a puddle big enough for humans to swim in! He grooms himself, fishes and bathes in the river, and wanders a great cedar forest. He lives peacefully with bears, leaving enormous footsteps behind him as he goes. After hibernating in a cave, he meets a female sasquatch; they fall in love and have a child. The mother sasquatch weaves cedar basket after cedar basket, strong and watertight, which they leave all over the forest to gather rainwater. When another forest fire occurs, these baskets of rainwater save the whole family. The book uses composite images: photos of natural landscapes populated by two-dimensional sasquatch figures that look like make-believe cutouts filled with a wood-grain effect and marked with the iconic designs of the Pacific Northwest Native peoples. The collages give the book a funny, make-believe feel. Both author and illustrator are #ownvoices creators, the former of the Kwantlen First Nation and the latter of the Kwakwaka'wakw Nation. Visually striking and unusual, this picture book makes the myth of Sasquatch come alive. (Picture book. 5-8)

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