The Adventures of Jay and Gizmo Project

With the new covid world I'm in need help with keeping the project going. With  the very quick rise in costs right from paper supply, postal fees and marketing.

Indigenous versions of The Adventures of Jay and Gizmo

I'm an Indigenous woman from Oneida Nation of the Thames, who is a mother, grandmother, proud community member and a published children's author. I am passionate about education and find meaningful purpose in my writing for children. As a mother I have always loved reading with my children.
Over the growing years of my children, especially my sons, I often found it very difficult to find story books for children that not only had specific content for boys but also story books written from an accurate lens of Indigenous culture. I now have a grandson and overall, have found the same to be true. This lived experience, coupled with the evidence based research that tells us how important early literacy is for children’s cognitive development, their connection to family and belongingness in culture, I found myself on the path to creating children’s stories that brings all of that together.
I have authored and published a three-book children's series named “The Adventures of Jay and Gizmo!” The books are currently published in the English language,are available in indigenous children's book bag projects all across Canada and are available for purchase now!

Jay is an indigenous boy who buddies up with his best furry friend, fun loving and curious cat, Gizmo.

In Book One, readers learn about how Jay and Gizmo become best friends through their first adventure.

In Book Two, Jay and Gizmo learn about traditional Indigenous hoop dancing and Autism Inclusion.

In Book Three, Jay and Gizmo learn about Boys with Braids. 

The Adventures of Jay and Gizmo is an Indigenous Children's Series center focused on the main character an Indigenous boy named Jay and his cat named Gizmo. Join Jay and Gizmo as they explore Indigenous culture!!

These books are aimed specifically to help educate on the importance of revitalizing and normalizing Indigenous Language and Culture and at young and early school-aged Indigenous boys.

They are written based on educational research into the factors that in order for children to excel in literacy and in life skills they need content and language they can relate to. In order to revitalize indigenous language and culture for Indigenous children content needs to be relatable, normalized and highly accessible. Due to residential school system Indigenous languages are in danger of extinction or are extinct

"EVERY TIME WE LOSE A LANGUAGE IN THIS COUNTRY, WE LOSE HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF STORIES AND HISTORIES OF A PARTICULAR PLACE"
Russel Fayant

They are written based on educational research into the factors that have been shown to play a role in increasing the probability that boys will develop an Interest in reading at an early age.

Educational research has shown that the number 1 predictor that children will experience long-term success in school is the level of reading readiness that they already have when they begin school. The research also shows that young boys who have been provided with books that have specific characteristics are likely to have a higher level of reading readiness when they begin school.

These characteristics are as follows:
1. Books that have a male as the central character
2.Books that the boys actually own, even if they cannot yet read them by themselves
3. Books that contain action, adventure, and/or problem-solving by boys
4. Books that portray the central character modeling behaviors such as reading, problem, solving, searching for, and applying knowledge
5.Books in which the vocabulary allows them to be read to boys by their parents in their early years and by the boys themselves once they begin to read for themselves

With what has been accomplished so far, my journey now brings me to the next step in restoring life to the lost and rapidly dying traditional languages of Indigenous people across Turtle Island.

For my contribution to “Truth and Reconciliation” being put into action, especially for the boy children and youth of Turtle Island, I have partnered up with traditional speakers to have the three-book series “The Adventures of Jay and Gizmo” be translated and authored in Indigenous languages. To start, the books will be first be released in the Ojibwe language. My goal is to have the series translated and published into as many traditional languages as possible. This will provide parents, educators and readers with proper and relatable content that will be readily available and accessible to Indigenous families and communities everywhere.

It takes a community to raise children and to make meaningful change for children!!

I put forth this “go-fund- campaign to raise the funds needed to make this project a success in the restoration of language and culture through truthful Indigenous cultural educational resources for children.

Together we have survived, now we thrive!

Success!

More info on books can be found at

www.jayandgizmo.ca