The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George
The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George

The Animal People Choose a Leader by Richard Wagamese and Bridget George

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Ages: 6–8 years

Accompanied by award-winning illustrator Bridget George’s luminous artwork, this tradition-steeped story from renowned author Richard Wagamese meditates on the unifying powers of wisdom, kindness and respect with all the visionary clarity of our most essential legends.

The unmistakable voice of revered Ojibway author Richard Wagamese returns with this moving tale, beautifully illustrated by original work from Anishinaabe artist Bridget George.

The story unfolds in a “Long Ago Time” when animals of all kinds share a common language and gather to solemnly consider which of them should be their leader. After hearing boasts about the qualities of the candidates—Horse’s fleetness, Buffalo’s stamina, Cougar’s patience, Wolverine’s stealth—the conference decides to settle the matter with a race between the challengers around a foreboding mountaintop lake. And there will be one more contestant of the most unlikely sort: a small, charmingly humble rabbit named Waabooz, whose chances are considered slim by all.

In the action that follows, described with the piercing clarity and richness of any great legend, Wagamese and George gracefully convey the limits of physical force and the quietly irresistible energies of humility, empathy and a loving attachment to the land. Unforgettable for its lyrical power and poignant message, The Animal People Choose a Leader is yet another example of the late author’s unique gifts as a storyteller, and a welcome reminder of his honoured place in Canadian writing.

Richard Wagamese, an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario, was one of Canada's foremost writers. His acclaimed, bestselling novels included Indian Horse, which was a Canada Reads finalist, winner of the inaugural Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, and made into a feature film; and Medicine Walk.

He was also the author of acclaimed memoirs, including For Joshua; One Native Life; and One Story, One Song, which won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature; as well as a collection of personal reflections, Embers, which received the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award.

He won numerous awards and recognition for his writing, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize, the Canada Reads People's Choice Award, and the Writers' Trust of Canada's Matt Cohen Award. Wagamese died on March 10, 2017, in Kamloops, BC.

Bridget George is an Anishinaabe author-illustrator, graphic designer and mother to a lovely baby boy named Noah. She was raised on the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation in Ontario and she currently lives in London, ON.

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