Meet the award-winning children's author & adaptor of "Braiding Sweetgrass" Monique Gray Smith (Cree, Lakota, Scot)
Mon., March 27
4 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Rainshadow Hall, Free
Presented by the
Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Library
Please register to attend here:
https://dungenessrivercenter.app.neoncrm.com/eventReg.jsp?event=1026&
Monique Gray Smith, award-winning author of books for children, young adults, and adults, will be at the River Center at 4 p.m. on Monday to talk about her work and adaptation: Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults.
The book was adapted from the original, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, with permission of the author, Robin Wall Kimmerer (Anishinaabe, Potawatami).
This new illustrated edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Monique Gray Smith stops at the River Center on her way from British Columbia to Port Townsend where Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults has been chosen for the Port Townsend Public Library's Community Read. The Library purchased over 900 books to give away to the public. The library's offer was embraced by patrons: All books have been given away and the town's 150-seat room at the Maritime Center rented for Gray Smith's appearance there on Tuesday.
"Monique Gray Smith has exquisitely captured the tone of Robin Wall Kimmerer's voice in this masterful adaptation for young readers of Braiding Sweetgrass. It has all the power, poetry and passion of the adult edition but there is a delightful intimacy that will make YA readers feel as if Kimmerer is holding an intimate conversation with them about Indigenous knowledge and it's connection to the well-being of the planet. Gray Smith's adaptation makes this visionary exploration of Indigenous connections to the land, to plants and to storytelling and story-making accessible to a whole new readership and hopefully will inspire young people to rise to the challenges of the Climate Crisis." -Jeffrey Canton, Children's Book Columnist, The Globe and Mail
If you'd like to buy a book locally before Monique's appearance at the River Center, please contact Imprint Bookstore in Port Townsend. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults and Gray Smith's other titles are also available at the River Center's online bookshop at https://bookshop.org/search?keywords=monique+gray+smith