Nomads: Life on the Move

(Hardback)

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Description

Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2024

A beguiling look at seven contemporary nomadic cultures around the world, offering a timely insight into alternative ways of life that connect us to our ancestral roots.

A fascinating and beautiful survey of seven nomadic societies spread across the continents. With delicately beautiful illustrations bringing the material to life, we learn about the Sama Bajau, fishing nomads from the Philippines who spend months at sea without ever touching land. We discover the Yanomami peoples of the Amazon rainforest whose connection to their environment informs every aspect of their lives. The Nenet nomads of Siberia follow their reindeer through blasting winds to the very edge of the Arctic Circle.

All these cultures face common pressures and problems. Governments want them to settle down and assimilate; local populations view them with suspicion; subsistence farming or herding is not viable in a cut-throat globalised world.

This book offers a timely window on a simpler way of life, and on human traditions and cultures that connect us to our distant ancestors. Elegantly and respectfully written and illustrated, this book is a captivating contribution to the growing literature on nomadic societies, and will appeal to both the education and the gift markets.

Reviews

A 2024 Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year

"In a striking nonfiction picture book, Nomads, Kinchoi Lam presents the customs, beliefs and future prospects of seven itinerate cultures. Using monotype and digital collage illustrations, oddly riveting with their daubs and smudges of color, Mr. Lam conjures the disparate ways of people who have not historically stayed put.

Among other roving groups featured in the book, readers will find the Yanomami of South America, the Nenets of Siberia and the waterborne Sama-Bajau of the Philippine islands. In every case, there's some degree of friction with the forces of modernity, a state of affairs that cannot but give this handsome book an undertow of melancholy." -- The Wall Street Journal

"It does seem more than a bit strange to me how few books children have on certain topics. We've seen nomadic life exemplified in picture books from time to time, but a nonfiction text that looks at how nomadic life came to be and the seven nomadic tribes that exist to this day is without compare. As the copy for this book puts it, "This book is a wonderful introduction to sustainable living as a contract to capitalistic societies." Impressive Glossary too." -- School Library Journal

"The result is a delightful exploration that comes with intriguing illustrations. The focus lends to classroom discussion and insights into how the nomadic way of life both differs and holds connections to environment and human endeavors." -- Donovan's Literary Services

"This book is a great introduction to a group that many children haven't heard of, and can spur further research and thinking about what we can learn from nomadic lifestyles". -- Youth Services Book Review

Author Bio

Kinchoi Lam is an artist and picturebook creator based in Hong Kong. He is a recent graduate of the Cambridge School of Art Children's Book Illustration MA, and winner of the Batsford Prize 2021. He was also shortlisted for the World Illustration Awards 2020, and selected for the exhibition of Bologna Book Fair and Shanghai Book Fair. His book, Journey To Mars was published by Cotton Tree in 2021.