Orca Chief
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Orca Chief is the third in a series of Northwest Coast legends by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. Their previous collaborations, Raven Brings the Light (2013) and Cloudwalker (2014), are award-winning national bestsellers.
Thousands of years ago in the village of Kitkatla, four hunters leave home in the spring to harvest seaweed and sockeye. When they arrive at their fishing grounds, exhaustion makes them lazy and they throw their anchor overboard without care for the damage it might do to marine life or the sea floor.
When Orca Chief discovers what the hunters have done, he sends his most powerful orca warriors to bring the men and their boat to his house. The men beg forgiveness for their ignorance and lack of respect, and Orca Chief compassionately sends them out with his pod to show them how to sustainably harvest the ocean’s resources.
Accompanied by almost exclusively new illustrations by Roy Henry Vickers, this next installment of the Northwest Coast Legends will captivate readers young and old with its vivid imagery and remarkable storytelling.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the third Northwest Coast legends book, renowned artist Vickers and broadcaster and author Budd retell and beautifully illustrate an ancient tale, which Vickers explains was first told to him by an elder in his grandmother's family. The story recounts the journey of four men who went out in their boat to fish and gather seaweed. Tired, they carelessly throw their anchor without saying a prayer that it will find a safe place to land on the ocean floor. They incur the wrath of the chief of all the orca whales when it lands on the roof of his underwater home, and one of the men harms a whale sent by the chief to investigate. They are brought before the chief by a powerful whirlpool. After admonishing them for being disrespectful, the orca chief demonstrates his kindness by asking his two best hunters to show his visitors how to best harvest the ocean's food. They also teach them to express gratitude to the plants and animals they're about to eat. This is a timeless story that stresses the need for a symbiotic relationship between human beings and nature and advocates for sustainable use of the ocean's resources; it should appeal to readers both young and old.
