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Haida Gwaii group launching children’s book about ANT

Early learning and aboriginal education staff from School District 50, and Literacy Haida Gwaii will use the opening ceremony of the All-Native Basketball Tournament as a book launch for Canada’s only children’s book about Aboriginal basketball.
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B is for Basketball will launch at the All Native Basketball Tournament.

Early learning and aboriginal education staff from School District 50, and Literacy Haida Gwaii will use the opening ceremony of the All-Native Basketball Tournament as a book launch for Canada’s only children’s book about Aboriginal basketball.

B is for Basketball is an illustrated children’s book written to teach young kids the alphabet by using comparisons to things in Aboriginal basketball, and Prince Rupert’s All-Native Tournament.

“Each page has an illustration and a very simple sentence and illustration that goes along with each respective letter...For the letter ‘A’ it says, ‘auntie from Alaska arrives at the All-Native’,” said Alison Gear, the early learning coordinator for School District 50.

The idea for the book started four years ago when the school district opened an Aboriginal children’s library. People were invited to come down to the library to see all the different things they could choose to buy for it.

“Then one of the parents said to me, ‘we need a book about basketball. Are there any books about basketball?’ And that was the catalyst for making this happen,” says Gear.

“Basketball is a significant part of First Nations culture in the north. Children love to play basketball, they love to watch basketball, they see it everywhere. It’s just the life and breath of the community here.”

The book is being published by Vancouver-based publishing house, Mackeller and Martin, with the help of the Northern Savings credit union, which put up $15,000 so they could print a collectors edition of the book, which will be for sale at the All-Native Tournament in Prince Rupert next month.

The regular trade edition will eventually be available at bookstores.