Selected for the Canadian Children's Book Centre’s Best Books for Kids & Teens!

It's bedtime for baby ptarmigan, but he will not go to sleep. So his grandmother decides to tell him a bedtime story that he will never forget. With delightful illustrations by Qin Leng, this book is a simple, nursery rhyme inspired rendition of a traditional Inuit origin tale. Published for the first time as a board book under the Inhabit Junior imprint, this book is perfect for the smallest of hands.

"A brief, illuminating glimpse into Inuit storytelling." - Kirkus Reviews

"Grandmother Ptarmigan deserves a place with Aesop’s fables and fables of all types." - CM Magazine

Qaunaq Mikkigak is an elder, artist, and throat singer from Cape Dorset, Nunavut. She was born in 1932 in the Cape Dorset area and grew up on the land in a traditional Inuit community. She was featured in the books Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset and Cape Dorset Sculpture. She has collaborated with author Joanne Schwartz on picture book versions of two traditional Inuit tales, The Legend of the Fog and Grandmother Ptarmigan. She is well known locally for her storytelling, and her throat singing has been featured on several recordings.

Qaunaq Mikkigak's profile page

Joanne Schwartz was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her first picture book, Our Corner Grocery Store, illustrated by Laura Beingessner, was nominated for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Her other books include City Alphabet and City Numbers, with photos by Matt Beam, and two Inuit folktales with Cape Dorset elder Qaunaq Mikkigak — The Legend of the Fog, illustrated by Danny Christopher, and Grandmother Ptarmigan, illustrated by Qin Leng. Joanne has been a children’s librarian for more than twenty-five years. She lives in Toronto.

Joanne Schwartz's profile page

Qin Leng was born in Shanghai, China. At the age of five, she moved with her family to Bordeaux, France, where she spent the next four years. Soon after, she moved to Montreal, where she spent the rest of her childhood. Having been born in Asia but raised in the West, she uses both cultures as her source of inspiration. Looking at her illustrations, one can see the presence of both East and West.Qin Leng comes from a family of artists, where the visual senses have always been of the utmost importance. She grew up watching her father work with acrylics, pastel, and ink. Father and daughter often spent their days drawing side by side. Drawing first started as a hobby, but soon became a way of expression.Despite her many years of study to become a biologist, Qin decided at the age of 20 to follow the same path as her father and enrolled in the School of Cinema to study Film Animation at Concordia University. She has produced animated shorts, which were nominated in various nationa

Qin Leng's profile page

A brief, illuminating glimpse into Inuit storytelling.