Two New Books in Menominee Language

Thanks to the NFLS News newsletter January 2024 for the heads up on these two new books published for children in the Menominee language. What a great resource for our WI libraries!

Have you Heard About the Frybread Man?

The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin received a $149,889 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to create and self-publish a series of books to encourage fluency in and preserve the Menominee language. Library staff worked with a trained immersion teacher to create several children’s books with phonetic pronunciation and English translation for juvenile readers. The goal of these books is to create a series of books for young readers and their families to learn Menominee vocabulary words together.

The first two books (shown below) are available on Amazon and will be provided to families with infants attending the immersion rooms at the Menominee Tribal daycare, elementary children attending reservation schools, and those visiting the library.

Count with Me in Menominee: Read with Me in Menominee Series
by S. Verna Fowler Academic Library (Author), Janice Rabideaux (Illustrator) 

Learn to count in Menominee with hand drawn images of local animals and their babies. A great book for counting, language learning, and early literacy.

This book was developed as part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The goal of these books is to create a series of books for pre/early readers and their families to enjoy together. Each book features Menominee vocabulary words to help the readers learn together. Waewaenen/thank you.

The Frybread Man
by Carlotta Perez (Author), Mona Lyons (Author)

If you love the Gingerbread Man you are going to love the Frybread Man. In this book the Frybread Man takes off on the old woman and her husband and runs from animals he meets in the forest in this woodland version of the classic Gingerbread Man.This book is designed to teach young readers and their families Menominee language words and how to say them with a pronuncian key at the beginning of the book and phonetics by each word.

The College of Menominee Nation Library also posted a Zoom video featuring a reading of The Frybread Man by Cedar Fernandez and songs sung by Wade Fernandez on its Facebook page on October 1, 2020.

The Menominee Public Library is located on the College of Menominee Nation campus in Keshena, Wisconsin, now called the S. Verna Fowler Academic Library/Menominee Public Library. In late 2012, the Menominee Tribal/County Public Library created a joint library with CMN’s academic library to serve the Menominee community. The Library plans to publish more books in the Menominee language in the near future to continue to teach and preserve the language.