Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa

A nonfiction picture book about the inspiring true pay-it-forward story that bridges two continents, 175 years, and two events in history--connecting Ireland, Choctaw Nation, Navajo Nation, and the Hopi Tribe.

Choctaw author Leslie Stall and Navajo illustrator Johnson Yazzie come together to share the importance of empathy and kindness.

1845. The Potato Famine devastated Ireland. An ocean away, Choctaw people heard and were moved by the similarities to the injustice they had suffered on the Trail of Tears. Though they had little, they gathered money to donate.

2017. Irish people built a statue to remember their connection to the Choctaw Nation--twenty-foot high feathers in the shape of a bowl.

2020. COVID-19 disproportionately ravished the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe. Irish people remembered the Choctaws' kindness and paid it forward by donating.

Empathy creates kindness that lives well beyond a single act and includes more people the bigger it grows.

♦ "A richly detailed, phenomenally told true story about paying it forward through history."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Leslie Stall Widener is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. She has illustrated six Choctaw-related picture books: Chukfi Rabbit’s Big, Bad Bellyache; The Turkey Who Liked to Show Off; Why the Turtle Has Cracks on His Back; The Story of Tanchi; Why the Possum Has No Hair on His Tail; and Why Rabbit Has a Short Tail. Leslie lives in McKinney, Texas, with her artist husband, Terry Widener.

Born on the Navajo Nation in Pinon, Arizona, Johnson Yazzie's interest in creation began in childhood and led to a lifelong career in fine art as a painter, bronze sculptor, and illustrator. Johnson illustrated Yossel's Journey by Kathryn Lasky. The Navajo word hózhó means balance, harmony, beauty. It is the word by which he lives.