The glossy, heavy stock, saturated with a sophisticated palette of black, brown, maroon, bluish-gray and green, teems with kawaii kokeshi- “super cute little wooden dolls”-who talk and act like contemporary little girls. (Their images are also produced on notecards and journals.)Ī stilted text, translated from French, accompanies these commercialized, cartoon-like images. The kimonos in this title are shown on “creative” (non-traditional) Kokeshi that have evolved from their origins as stickers in France. Kokeshi, northern Japanese wooden folk dolls, are painted with differently designed kimonos that denote the area in which they are made and form the inspiration for this pretty novelty. Nalvana is a bundle of creativity, spunk, and determination-readers will be happy to know her Mack’s illustrations and soft palette match the tone of the story, printlike textures creating a cozy feel for Nalvana’s far north home. Inuit author Johnston’s text seamlessly blends fantasy with reality, sprinkling culturally specific details such as inuksuit and Inuktitut words into a universal story. However, in talking things out with her mother, Nalvana discovers she has a superpower, too. She congratulates them on their amazing abilities, but when she tries to do each one herself, she fails. As time goes by, Nalvana observes one friend after another exhibiting their own superpowers. “I’m sure we will find out soon,” her mother says. Later when she tells her mother about him over a snack, she wonders aloud if she might have a superpower too.

On the first day of school in gym class, a classmate runs so fast he is a blur, so she tells him running must be his superpower. She dresses like a superhero with a yellow cape and snow goggles instead of a cowl as she works to discover her special talent. Wherever Nalvana goes in her town she wonders what it would be like to have a superpower. In 2018, Johnston was named one of 18 Canadian writers to watch by CBC Books.Young protagonist Nalvana lives in a small town with long winters and struggles to find her own superpower. She lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, with her dog, Sunny. Her other works include the short stories Tarnikuluk, winner of the 2014 Aboriginal Arts and Stories Award, and The Haunted Blizzard featured in Taaqtumi: An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories. In 2019 the sequel, Those Who Dwell Below, was published. She is also the author of the best-selling picture book What's My Superpower?, illustrated by Tim Mack. Her first novel Those Who Run in the Sky, a coming-of-age story about a young shaman trapped in the spirit world, won the Indigenous Voices Award for most significant work of prose in English and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature - text.

What's My Superpower? by Aviaq Johnston