Description
Father's Boots: Azhe'e Bikenidoots'osii is a bilingual English and Navajo picture book published by Salina Bookshelf that tells the story of three Navajo brothers who are waiting for their father to return home for the Christmas holidays. Storyteller and artist Baje Whitethorne has created an interesting approach to informing children about the Navajo (Dine) traditions of storytelling and the inherent traditional knowledge and spirituality embedded in these stories. This Navajo family consists of the parents, their three sons, and grandmother. The family lives in two hogans. Grandmother often looks after her grandsons after school and during holidays and the boys provide her with firewood and buckets of water. In return she tells them stories long into the night or so the boys believe. In fact they think her stories are boring. But something happens at school one day as each brother begins to recall parts of the stories and together they have remembered each sequence. The boys anticipate their father returning from his job on the railroad and boys know their father is home when they see his cowboy books sitting by the door of their hogan. The boys have learned their grandmother has taught them well and in spite of their complaints about boring stories they have come to appreciate her gentle teachings about their Navajo beliefs and values of thanksgiving.