S. D. Nelson’s 2026 picture book The Animals Speak: The Lakota Way/Wamákashkaŋ’iya: Lakhól Wichóh’aŋ Kiŋ is a teaching book. In fact, it teaches in several arenas.
It starts with an overview lesson, guiding readers to look at the world in a specific fashion: the Lakota Way.
Then the book gives a series of brief lessons, two pages each. The lessons each focus on one living being (usually animals, one tree) and give a brief lesson from and about that animal.
When the beings are introduced, their names are given in both English and Lakota. (Dakota W. Goodhouse did the Lakota translations.)
The illustrations are inspired by the Lakota pictograph tradition.
At the end of the illustrated pages, there’s a lesson about “two-leggeds” or “Hununpa” (people), which places humans as one among many, rather than above and distinct from animals and plants.
An author’s note concludes the text, and is really useful for tying it all together conceptually.
The individual lessons are good ones, as is the message of environmental unity, and the pictures are pretty. There is not, however, a unifying plot, so this may not appeal to all readers.
