The Pencil by Susan Avingaq

When Susan's mother leaves their iglu to help a neighbour with a birth, she and her sister Rebecca and brother Peter are left in the care of their father. Play for the children includes having a jumping contest, a game of hide-and-seek and the two older girls practicing their letters on the frost surface of the ice window. But when Ataata pulls out the pencil from the special box of Anaana's things, everything changes. The pencil is already very short from Anaana's writing of letters to people in other camps, using whatever paper she might save including from tea boxes and sugar bags, but it is still gold. Anaana always said that we needed to be very careful with the pencil and that it wasn't a toy. Ataata also gives Susan a piece of paper and suggests she draw pictures for her brother. Though nervous, she draws seals and caribou and her family. Then Rebecca practices her writing, and Peter draws some scribbles and their father draws different inuksuit. The pencil gets shorter and Ataata has to sharpen it with his knife. Source: CanLit for Little Canadians

Authors Avingaq and Vsetula understand life in Nunavut, Canada, and embed in the story the importance of being responsible for belongings and caring for them wisely. A helpful glossary of the Inuktitut words (italicized on first reference within the story) is included in the backmatter. Kirkus

Listen to an audio sample here. This book (2019) is available here in Australia but sadly it will be well beyond the budget of most school libraries. 

While we were in Canada my friend and I tried to read lots of Canadian indigenous titles. The Pencil is one we found in library and it is a story that has lingered with me. My friend had talked about this book previously in this blog post. 

At the IBBY Congress in Ottawa IBBY launched their newest list: IBBY-UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books in Indigenous and Endangered Languages.

This list links with International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032).

The Collection is both a celebration and a call to action. It invites readers, educators, publishers and institutions worldwide to discover the richness of books created in Indigenous and endangered languages, while encouraging the production and dissemination of new works. By highlighting stories rooted in diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, it affirms that languages are not only to be preserved, but to be actively used, shared and continuously reimagined. The development of this Collection has been both an ambitious and deeply enriching process. The final Collection offers a journey across regions and traditions, showcasing how children, through more than 152 languages, engage with stories that reflect their realities, imaginations and identities.

Over 500 titles were submitted from around the world and 169 were eventually selected for this inaugural list representing 150 languages. You can see the full list with detailed annotations here. I previously talked about the book by David A Robertson from Cananda that is included on this list. He was a Keynote speaker at the IBBY Congress. 

Here are the criteria for the UNESCO IBBY List:

● Books for children and young people (picture books, novels, biographies, graphic novels and nonfiction) presenting high-quality standards in terms of text and/or illustration; 

● books published between January 2018 and December 2025; 

● books originally published in an Indigenous and/or an endangered language, and original bilingual books including at least one Indigenous and/or endangered language;  

● books expressing the intention of, or relation to, one or more of the 10 outputs of the Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages; and 

● books and publications that adhere to UNESCO principles and respect 

political neutrality. 

Here are a few of the Australian titles:

These books are not included in the IBBY UNESCO catalogue but they were some I read in the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver:

You can read more about these and many others here.