Kuekuatsheu Creates the World
retold by Annie Picard
illustrated by Elizabeth Jancewicz
Running the Goat, Books and Broadsides and Manu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education; 2024
ISBN 9781998802210
$24.99, 31 pp, ages 5 – 10
runningthegoat.com
Kuekuatsheau Creates the World explains how the world was created according to an Innu legend told to the author by her grandparents. In this story, a canoe full of animals is together after the world is flooded, and they decide they must dive to the bottom of the sea to find some earth on which to create land for themselves. Three of the animals—Amishk the beaver, Nitshik the otter, and Muak the loon—dive to the bottom of the ocean, one at a time, without success. Finally, Utshashk the muskrat offers to go, although the others protest that he is too small. Utshask finally surfaces, drowned but holding in his paw a small bit of earth. The wolverine, Kuekuatsheu, takes the earth and breathes on it, and it gets bigger. Missinak, the turtle, offers to carry the land on his back, and as he keeps breathing on the earth, it becomes big enough to hold all animals, plants, trees, and people. Written in both English and Innu-aimun, this simply but beautifully illustrated picture book is both a straightforward retelling of a creation story, and an opportunity for students to learn how to read, write, and speak the Indigenous language of the Innu people. The use of bold colours, simple outlined shapes, and sparse details makes this a delightful visual journey for the reader.
Classroom Connections: This book was designed to be a teaching tool for students who are learning the Innu-aimun language and will be a valuable resource both for cultural connections and the simple, easy-to-read story. For all students, it presents one of many creation stories that could be used in a comparison study. There is an opportunity to create Venn diagrams with these stories. Examples might be the story of Noah’s ark or the Anansi stories from Africa. The theme of the little animal who is the hero while the larger, more predictable animals fail can lead to fascinating parallels in both literature and the student’s experience of how something small can be the very thing to solve a big problem. The drawings on bright backgrounds of colour will lend themselves to students creating similar pictures, outlining shapes in their pictures with a black Sharpie and an aura of light.
Review by Betty Schultze.
This review is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Winter 2026 issue.
