We Are Water Protectors
Follow a young Indigenous girl as she continues the long-held legacy of joining forces to protect and save the water.
Season:
About the Author, Illustrator, and Honored Guest
Author
Carole Lindstrom
Carole Lindstrom is Anishinabe/Metis and is tribally enrolled with the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe. She was born and raised in Nebraska and currently makes her home in Maryland.
Carole has been a voracious reader and library geek ever since she was growing up in Nebraska. On weekends you could usually find her at the library lost in the book stacks or holed up in her bedroom with a good book. It wasn’t until she had her son, that she discovered her love of writing for children and began to work seriously on her writing.
Bio from the author’s website.
Illustrator
Michaela Goade
Ms. Goade is a Caldecott Medalist and #1 New York Times Bestselling illustrator of “We Are Water Protectors,” also a 2020 Kirkus Prize Finalist. Other books include the New York Times Bestselling “I Sang You Down from the Stars,” “Encounter” and “Shanyaak’utlaax: Salmon Boy,” winner of the 2018 American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book.
Over the last few years, Michaela’s work has focused on Indigenous KidLit. She is honored to work with Indigenous authors and tribal organizations in the creation of beautiful and much-needed books. An enrolled member of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Michaela’s Tlingit name is Sheit.een and she is of the Kiks.ádi Clan (Raven/Frog) from Sheet’ká.
Michaela was raised in the rainforest and on the beaches of Southeast Alaska, traditional Lingít Aaní (Tlingit land). Today she lives in Sheet’ká (Sitka), Alaska, a magical island on the edge of a wide, wild sea.
Bio from the illustrator’s website.
Honored guest
Kathleen Smith
Our honored guest is Ms. Kathleen Smith, Gaa ganawendang Manoomin (She who takes care of the wild rice in Ojibwemowin) with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC).
Discussion Questions
- How is water important to you and your daily life? Brainstorm all the ways we use water every day. Talk about where your water comes from. Come up with ideas to protect and save your water.
- Look at the last two pages of the book, featuring many indigenous people. Learn about the indigenous people who live near you today and the people who lived in your place long ago.
- What is the black snake that is poisoning the water, plants, animals, and land? Discuss environmental concerns in your community and what you can do to be better stewards for the Earth.
- In the book, a young girl talks about fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves—the animals, plants, trees, rivers, and lakes. How can you fight for them? What resources exist in your community to help those that cannot fight for themselves?
- “The four-legged, the two-legged, the plants, trees, rivers, lakes, the Earth. We are all related.” Discuss the ways in which the Earth and all its creatures are related.
- From Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers: We are Water Protectors Activity Kit.
Learning Activities & Explore More
- Brainstorm ideas for protecting the water. Then use the same technique (watercolor) that the illustrator Michaela Goade uses in this book to create a poster advocating for all to take steps to protect the water.
- Learn more about the origins of protests at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Tell your grown-ups and your friends what you learned.