Universality and Interconnectedness of Play Among Earth’s Creatures

Myra here.

For this year’s reading theme, we hope to feature books that fit any of the following criteria:

Postcolonial literature and/or [pre/post] revolutionary stories
Stories by indigenous / first-nation peoples / people of colour
Narratives of survival and healing, exile and migration, displacement and dispossession
Books written or illustrated by people who have been colonized, oppressed, marginalized

We All Play [Amazon | Book Depository]

Written and Illustrated by Julie Flett Published by Greystone Kids (2021) ISBN: 1771646071 (ISBN13: 9781771646079) Borrowed from Overdrive. Book photos taken by me.

Julie Flett is a master at distilling children’s activities and relationships and behaviours in a way that makes her books alive, fun, and infinitely engaging.

This is felt even more keenly with her latest title, We All Play, where the interconnectedness among species who hide and hop, chase and chirp, yip and yawn is celebrated, as befitting all creatures of God’s earth who play and run and frolic under the sun.

The picturebook is also a feast of Cree words, including a list of vocabulary words at the end of book – a celebration of, and tribute to Flett’s Cree-Metis heritage. As she further explained in her Author’s note:

Whether we are running and hopping through the grass or rolling along the street or pondering creatures in the creek, we are all connected, living in relationship and in care to one another, in kinship. In Cree, this is called wâhkôhtowin.

While deceptively simple, the subtext underlying the story is our shared responsibility towards each other, as we all embrace Nature’s bounty in play and joy.