Selected for CCBC Annual Best-of-the-Year Book List 2014!

In the time before animals were as they are today, Raven and Loon were both white. Their feathers had no colour at all. Raven spent his days swooping through the sky trying to fight off his incessant boredom, while loon spent her days in her iglu working away on her sewing. One day, too bored to even fly, Raven visited Loon and suggested a sewing game that would give their feathers some much-needed colour. The results—not at all what the two birds expected—led to Raven and Loon acquiring their now-familiar coats.

"Folklore invitingly told and presented for a young audience." - Kirkus Reviews

"With its significant potential for generating discussion, this is a perfect book for school and library settings." - Quill & Quire

Of Inuit-Cree ancestry, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley was born in a tent on northernmost Baffin Island. She learned Inuit survival lore from her father, surviving residential school and attending university. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for numerous cultural writings. Of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley was born in southern Ontario, learning woodcraft and stories from his father. Training as an artist, then writer, Sean’s sci-fi work won 2nd place at the California-based Writers of the Future contest, published by Galaxy Press. Rachel and Sean have worked for decades as Arctic researchers and consultants. In writing together, they have published 10 successful books and many shorter works, celebrating the history and uniqueness of Arctic shamanism, cosmology, and cosmogony. Their novel, Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic, was a Governor General Awards Finalist and First Prize Burt Award winner.

Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley's profile page

Of Inuit-Cree ancestry, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley was born in a tent on northernmost Baffin Island. She learned Inuit survival lore from her father, surviving residential school and attending university. In 2012, she was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for numerous cultural writings. Of Scottish-Mohawk ancestry, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley was born in southern Ontario, learning woodcraft and stories from his father. Training as an artist, then writer, Sean’s sci-fi work won 2nd place at the California-based Writers of the Future contest, published by Galaxy Press. Rachel and Sean have worked for decades as Arctic researchers and consultants. In writing together, they have published 10 successful books and many shorter works, celebrating the history and uniqueness of Arctic shamanism, cosmology, and cosmogony. Their novel, Skraelings: Clashes in the Old Arctic, was a Governor General Awards Finalist and First Prize Burt Award winner.

Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley's profile page

Kim Smith lives in Calgary, Alberta. This is her first children's book. When not illustrating for children, Kim illustrates comics. Her illustrations have been featured in advertising as well as in two comic collections, The Anthology Project and The Anthology Project, Volume Two. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2008 with a Bachelor of Design specializing in character design.

Kim Smith's profile page