Description
Note: Only the hardcover is currently available at the store. The paperback version of this book is currently out of stock. Used copies can be found on amazon. Also, a second edition is in progress and hopefully coming soon.
Tamarack Song (Author), Moses (Amik) Beaver (Illustrator)
It’s easy to imagine yourself transported back to a time when an Elder might have told stories like those in Whispers of the Ancients around a glowing hearth. Thanks to Tamarack Song’s storytelling skills, monsters, heroes, and shapeshifters come alive and open a doorway to the mysteries of life. Easily accessible to all ages, this is a book that speaks to each person at his or her own level of comprehension and need. It is as beautiful to read as it is to look at.
Stunning Aboriginal artwork by Moses (Amik) Beaver combines with provocative storytelling to renew, in all their traditional splendor, exceptional legends from around the world. Entertaining, profound, passionate, glorious—these are stories that illustrate and evoke themes common to everyone’s life, with an ancient wisdom that helps the listener to cope with today’s opportunities for tenderness, grief, passion, and irony.
AWARDS
Nautilus Gold:
Multi-cultural/Indigenous Works
Three Midwest Book Awards:
Culture, Social Studies, and Coffee Table Books categories
Storytelling World awarded Whispers as a Special Storytelling Resource
What others are saying about Whispers:
“The West lost its heart when we put aside the stories that have always been our sources of wisdom, of courage, of knowing one’s roots, what it is to be a neighbor, a guest, a host. Stories have reminded us who we are and how to become fully who we are.
We thought we must have facts; statistics. The truth. Look where it has gotten us: an imaginary world.
Nobody reminds us that facts change. Life changes. What we need to be human is…principles. We need wisdom. We need to learn living with others, and that may require delicate negotiations, where wisdom and courage mean survival. We have become so used to being taught that we have forgotten learning.
We learn from listening to stories like those in Whispers of the Ancients. In a world that forgets yesterday to make the same horrendous mistakes today, we need to be reminded that long ago we knew how to live because we grew up with stories.”
~Robert Wolff, author of Original Wisdom
Watch: Tamarack reads “Two Hungry Bears” with a slideshow of artwork by Moses (Amik) Beaver.
Listen: Tamarack tells the story of “Two Hungry Bears” from chapter 8 of Whispers.
Listen to an interview with Tamarack about the book.
The University of Michigan Press – Publisher’s page
Moses (Amik) Beaver’s homepage
