Crow Helps a Friend is a beautifully illustrated Coast Salish tale written and illustrated by Andrea Fritz. Released 16th April 2023 by Orca Books, it's 32 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

This is an original story told in a traditional style. Wood duck Qwiwilh and crow Q'uleeq'e' are playing when an accident robs the duck of his nest. The friends figure out how to solve the problem together. Although it's a modern story, the parallels in style and form to traditional oral stories are striking (and respectfully rendered).

This is a book aimed at younger readers (6-8 years, Lexile 670L) with simple text and appealing stylized illustrations full of details. The book has a number of traditional Hul’q’umi’num’ words, but the author has included a glossary and pronunciation guide.

Five stars. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, for home use, and for gift giving. It's a good story about friendship and responsibility, and it's also a respectful and loving introduction to Indigenous culture and storytelling.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thank you to NetGally and Ocra Book Publishers for the Arc. This is a great children's book about helping friends with some beautiful illustrations. Would definitely recommend to parents of younger children, especially if they are interested in birds!

This is an indigenous story from the west coast of British Columbia. There is an author's language pronunciation guide and glossary to help the reader understand. The pictures are beautiful. I think young readers would need an adult discussion to fully understand and appreciate this book.

This is a nice book! It has a great message. And beautiful illustrations. My only critique is that the animals names are hard to read, and for young readers I think it's important for them to not get frustrated when reading. Other than that it's a beautiful book and I will definitely buy a copy for my classroom. Thank you NetGalley for a copy of the arc in exchange for my honest review!

A fantastic second offering from Andrea Fritz in the Coast Salish Tales series. This story shares a message of friendship and making up for our mistakes. The artwork is.beauriful and I appreciated the additional I formation about coast Salish artwork, Hul'q'umi'num' peoples and language.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. While the crow and wood duck are playing, they accidentally destroy the wood duck nest, and it falls in the stream. Together they decided to work as a team and fix their mistake. Loved the illustrations.

Such a cute book. This is one with a great lesson in it on helping friends. This should be on every library shelf!

My daughter has been learning about Native American culture at school, so we specifically selected this book to continue learning about this culture through Indigenous Storytelling. We loved the Coast Salish language and values depicted in this book, along with the lesson of fixing mistakes and repairing relationships after harm caused. Lastly, the illustrations in this book add such great quality to the story. They are simple but bold, and reminded me of Eric Carle's layering techniques for his books.

I attempted to read this with my little girl during her tummy time. While it is very informative and insightful, I think it’s a bit long and wordy for children. Perhaps older children maybe but even then it may be a bit too long.

This was a sweet story and I loved the idea of teaching children that something old and broken can create something new. A wonderful way to teach children about ancestral lands and indigenous stories as well.

The illustrations in this were stunning and I appreciated the story. However, the words were incredibly hard for me, a non-indigenous speaker, to understand and pronounce. I wish that there had been phonetic spellings next to each one. This would be an amazing book for Ojibwe children and families but I don't think this is accessible enough for non-native speakers. I feel bad saying that because I'd love for there to be more indigenous authors, children's books, and representation but I really struggled to read this one.

Crow Helps a Friend is a sweet story that beautifully and seamlessly packages Indigenous People's language and story telling in a way that is digestible to any early reader. Beyond the message that comes with the story, the artwork is by far the best part. I hope to see more content made by the creators in the future! I would be happy to contain something like this in my classroom library.

This book was sweet. I liked how the characters became friends.

I also enjoyed the unique illustrations.

I enjoyed this story immnesely. The wood duck is happily nesting in his favorite tree when Crow asks him to play. In a game of one upmanship, they each go higher in the tree then the other, until the tree breaks and wood duck must find a new home. Crow feels sad about what happened and works to make amends. This is a sweet tale of friendship.

This is the second book in the new series of stories that are placed in the Coast Salish area which serves as home to the First Nation Hul’q’umi’num’-speaking Peoples. I recived a review copy of this book which I enjoyed so much that I then read the first book, "Otter Doesn’t Know". The author has used Indigenous storytelling techniques and art style to share their culture and language. The book uses a lot of native words in the story, but includes both a pronunciation guide and a glossery before the story. The art style that employs four basic shapes in both positive and bnegative space, is iunique and interesting.

With each passing generation, children know less of the language and culture of their people than the previous generation. This is an issue within many cultures. Fritz started this project to help educate the children of her own People. But these books are also a great way to teach any child about another culture while at the same time enjoying a simple tale.

I loved the indigenous names and illustrations in this book. I also really enjoyed reading the informational parts as
they increased my cultural knowledge. The story itself teaches children to care about others.

The story skillfully incorporates Indigenous cultural and linguistic storytelling. It is a tale of friendship between a wood duck and a crow. I was initially suspicious of the crow, and that added some depth to the story, making the enduring friendship even more heartwarming.
The story beautifully explores growth and camaraderie, turning a mistake into an opportunity for connection. It will be a delightful read for young readers and will foster an appreciation for Indigenous culture.

This was a lovely combination of learning multiple things at once. The lessons learned and the culture behind the lessons.