The Ones Who Came Before
About this ebook
Every year, Aabanya visits her grandfather Big Jimmy at his cottage on Early Mountain.
During the day, they gather corn, beans, and squash to make stew. In the evenings, Aabanya listens to her grandfather’s tales of the mountain and of Turtle Island.
When they venture into town, Aabanya feels out of place. The Earlies, a family who named Early Mountain generations ago, seem to look at her with questions in their eyes.
Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?
Her grandfather tells Aabanya that these are the very same questions her family and their people asked when the Earlies first came.
One night, Aabanya wakes to a scratch at her window and discovers... a bear! Fearful, she runs to her grandfather, who helps her remember that the bears... are the ones who came before.
Interwoven with indigenous concepts about land and the natural world, Fry Bread author Kevin Maillard’s thought-provoking story and artist Sibu T. P.’s rich, vibrant illustrations come together in this contemplation of heritage, ancestry, sharing space, and belonging.
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About the author
Kevin Maillard is a contributor to the New York Times and a professor of law at Syracuse University. He is the author of And They Walk On, illustrated by Rafael Lopez, and Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story, a picture book illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, which won the Sibert Medal and the American Indian Youth Literature Honor. An enrolled member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, he lives with his family in Manhattan and Vermont.
Born and raised in New York, Sibu T.P. is a first-generation child of immigrants. He spent a great deal of his childhood years scribbling and sketching, dreaming and imagining. Today, he tells stories through picture books. Sibu studied English Lit at SUNY Stony Brook, and illustration at the Hartford Art School. When he's not in front of his drawing board, he's taking pictures while hiking, and running from squirrels.
