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Michael Kusugak

Authors' Booking Service is pleased to announce that Michael Kusugak is available for school and library visits in Ontario. Since Michael is an out of province author he needs a minimum of 1 week of school visits to confirm Ontario bookings. If you are interested in having Michael visit your school please share this information with other schools in your area.

Recent news!!! Michael has moved from Rankin Inlet Nunavut to Vancouver Island where it will be much easier and less expensive for him to travel. Therefore his fees have been adjusted to reflect the decreased travel costs.

Michael's rates are $350.00 per one hour session. This includes travel costs AND the exciting new Hands On Learning Session done by Gerry, Michael’s wife.

Michael is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Ask us about subsidies.

Books and Awards

In 2008 Michael won the prestigious Vicky Metcalf Award for a body of work in Children’s Literature

Here's what jurist Jean Little has to say about Michael's work:

“A dynamic linking of memory and place defines Inuit children’s author Michael Kusugak picture books, short stories, and historical novel. Kusugak’s stories are primarily set in the 1950s of his childhood in Repulse Bay, a small Inuit community of only 100 people, at the north end of the Hudson Bay within the Arctic Circle. Drawing from personal experience, Kusugak writes unforgettably of the lived experience of the North: the beauty of the Arctic landscape, its variety of seasonal change and animal and human activities, the close knit life of the Inuit community, the presence of mythic imagery and belief. Kusugak’s voice is unique with Inuit diction and metaphor — falling stars are ‘star
droppings’. Kusugak writes of family love, folk tricksters, residential school, pre-contact era shamanism in a unifying spirit of place and culture, offering Canadian child and adult readers a living vision of a rich way of life.”

A Promise is a Promise (co-authored with Robert Munsch) Published by Annick Press, 1988
Read America Classic

Baseball Bats for Christmas Published by Annick Press, 1990
Greatest Canadian Books of the Century List, Vancouver Public Library
100 Best Books List Toronto Public Library
Ruth Schwartz Award Finalist

Hide and Sneak Published by Annick Press 1992

Northern Lights the Soccer Trails published by Annick Press 1993
Ruth Schwartz Award
Aesop Accolade List
Notable Book, Canadian Library Association

My Arctic 123 published by Annick Press 1996
Parents Council’s Outstanding from a Learning Perspective Honor
Chickadee Choice
Ruth Schwartz Award Finalist

Arctic Stories published by Annick Press 1998
The Year’s Best List Resource Links

Who Wants Rocks? Published by Annick Press 1999

The Curse of the Shaman, A Marble Island Story published by Harper-Trophy 2006
Short Listed for the Anskohk Award in 2 categories
Short Listed for the Hackmatack Award

The Littlest Sled Dog published by Orca Books 2008
Alcuin Award, Excellence in Book Design in Canada

Presentations

Michael grew up living in igloos, sod huts, and skin tents. He traveled by dog team following the caribou, or living on the sea ice so that his family can hunt seals, whales, walrus, and catch fish to eat. Michael uses his experiences growing up listening to stories told by his grandmother in his storytelling sessions. He weaves these experiences with experiences of what life was like living a nomadic traditional life of Inuit along with the tremendous change that has occurred in the past 60 years. Michael’s sessions are usually 1 hour in length. Michael can do up to 4 sessions in a school day.

New** Hands on Learning Sessions

Michael’s wife Gerry brings a variety of items that the children can touch, try on, try out and experience. Items such as an Inuit drum, try on an amouti, look at and touch tools and implements, samples of fur, and clothing like, Kaamik, sealskin mitts, duffel socks, crocheted hats, and other items. What’s a Qulliq (stone seal oil lamp)? Look at a scale model of a kayak to see how it is constructed and much more. These sessions are held in a separate area from the storytelling so that children can see items that Michael talks about in his stories. These sessions are included with the author’s sessions.

A separate room is needed for the Hands On if there are 2 or more sessions booked. Other requirements are a large table, a chair, water and a screen or white board for showing some photographs. If there is only one session booked the Hands On session can be held in the presentation room.

Group Size

For author visits Michael likes the children to be grouped in grade/age levels. You can combine classes for his storytelling sessions. The younger grade groups should be smaller 50 – 70 per group. The older grade groups can be a bit bigger with 100 children max.

Room Preparation

Michael needs a chair, a small table and a jug, or bottle of water. It is important to have the children sitting on the floor in front of him. A library or classroom with an area large enough to accommodate the group is best.