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Children's Fiction Native American

How the Loon Lost her Voice

by (author) Anne Cameron

illustrated by Tara Miller

Publisher
Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd.
Initial publish date
Jan 1985
Category
Native American, Native American, Native Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780920080559
    Publish Date
    Jan 1985
    List Price
    $7.95

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Where to buy it

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Age: 3 to 6
  • Grade: 6

Description

The famous northwest coast Indian myth, sometimes called "Raven Steals the Light" telling how Loon, Raven, and all the animals rallied to retrieve the daylight from behind its wall of ice after it was stolen by evil spirits. Amusingly retold for ages six to adult by the well-known Canadian poet and novelist.

About the authors

Anne Cameron was born in Nanaimo, BC. She began writing at an early age, starting with theatre scripts and screenplays. In 1979, her film Dreamspeaker, directed by Claude Jutra, won seven Canadian Film Awards, including best script. After being published as a novel, Dreamspeaker went on to win the Gibson Award for Literature. She has published more than 30 books, including the underground classic Daughters of Copper Woman, its sequel, Dzelarhons, novels, stories, poems and legends - for adults and children. Her most recent novels are Family Resemblances, Hardscratch Row, and a new, revised edition of Daughters of Copper Woman. She lives in Tahsis, BC

Anne Cameron's profile page

Tara Miller is a talented artist trained at The Emily Carr School of art in Vancouver.

Tara Miller's profile page

Librarian Reviews

How the Loon lost her Voice

This story is sometimes called Raven Steals the Light. In this retelling, first published in 1985, all the animals must work together in order to free the daylight, which has been trapped in ice by evil spirits. Each animal in turn comes up with a plan to defeat the evil spirits, and Raven tries to warn them each time that the plan will not work. Raven uses her cunning to free the daylight, and is successful, but in the struggle, each animal was changed: Deer lost his antlers, Bear must rest from his labour each winter, and Loon lost her voice. Cameron’s prose is poetic and spare; each word carefully chosen to create beautiful imagery.

Cameron has written many books for children and adults including How Raven Freed the Moon(included in this catalogue). Cameron, a non-Aboriginal, was given permission to share the First Nations stories by Klopinum, a First Nations woman from Vancouver Island.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2008-2009.

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