It Bears Repeating - Hardcover

by Tanya Tagaq (Author), Cee Pootoogook (Illustrator)

Nominated for the 2025 Governor General's Literary Award -- Young People's Illustrated Books

This beautifully crafted picture book celebrates one of the world's most awesome animals: the polar bear. Evocative but simple text by award-winning musician and artist Tanya Tagaq is accompanied by striking art in this classic counting book.

Beginning with 1 proud polar bear standing tall and ending with 10 bears waving goodbye, this delightful counting book shows polar bears in all their forms: slippery and fast, crafty and cool, hungry and proud. Tanya has created a story meant to be read aloud, incorporating simple Inuktitut words and using her keen ear for the musical sound of language.

This book is joyful, powerful, clever and striking -- much like the bears who sniff, slide, swim, hunt, play and dance through its pages. And when you get to the last page, you won't be able to resist going back to repeat the journey!

Author Biography

TANYA TAGAQ is a Canadian (Inuk) throat singer from Cambridge Bay (Iqaluktuuttiaq), Nunavut, Canada, on the south coast of Victoria Island. She is an improvisational singer, avant-garde composer and bestselling author. A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize and Juno Award winner and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change. Tanya's first book was a novel called Split Tooth, which won and was nominated for numerous awards, including the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize (longlisted). It Bears Repeating is her first book for children.

CEE POOTOOGOOK is the eldest son of the late Napachie Pootoogook and Eegyvadluk Pootoogook, and older brother to the well-known Cape Dorset contemporary artist, Annie Pootoogook. Around 1990, Cee began carving and he developed a solid reputation for his curious and well executed depictions of spirits and transformations. In 2009, Cee gave up sculpture and began work as a stonecut printer. In a very short time, Cee demonstrated an aptitude for the precise and methodical qualities required for the time-consuming work of editioning prints. He has also been drawing for the past several years, depicting the day-to-day activities of community life as well as traditional subjects and wildlife. Cee has exhibited his work across Canada, the United States and Germany.