08. Storytime with Nature

Event Update: Monique Gray Smith is unfortunately no longer able to join us at this event. Kirsten Pendreigh will join this event with Luna’s Green Pet, a story of a young girl who finds a creative way to nurture nature in the city.

Settle in, get cozy, and enjoy readings from three celebrated children’s writers who instill wonder for the natural world—and the communities we can become part of. Andrea Fritz uses Indigenous storytelling techniques and art to share the culture and language of the Hul’q’umi’num’-speaking Peoples in Crow Helps a Friend and Raven Gets Tricked. Award-winning Candace Savage has spent decades studying the natural world, and helps youngsters understand how it all began in Always Beginning: The Big Bang, the Universe and You. Grades K–3.

Themes: Picture books, indigenous storytelling, nature, science, evolution, family, STEM
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts K-3, Arts Education K-3, Science 1-10

Presented in partnership with Vancouver International Children’s Festival.

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Event Participants:

Andrea Fritz

ANDREA FRITZ is a Coast Salish artist and storyteller from the Lyackson First Nation of the Hul’q'umi’num'-speaking Peoples on the West Coast of Canada. Andrea strives to express her People’s history and all our futures using her art. She has had numerous gallery shows and participates in community-based art pieces. Andrea lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Kirsten Pendreigh

KIRSTEN PENDREIGH is a poet and children’s author from Vancouver. Her children’s books celebrate our early instincts to care for the plants and creatures that share our planet. Luna’s Green Pet is about a little girl who raises a houseplant as a pet. Maybe a Whale is about a child discovering the healing power of nature on a kayak trip. Kirsten's two nonfiction books, When A Tree Falls, and What Fish Are Saying, come out in 2025. Kirsten's poems are found in Canadian literary magazines and anthologies including Best Canadian Poetry 2021.

Candace Savage

CANDACE SAVAGE is an award-winning writer, community organizer and grandmother based in Saskatoon, Treaty Six territory. She has written more than two dozen books for children and adults, including Always Beginning: the Big Bang, the Universe and You and How to Know a Crow: the Biography of a Brainy Bird.