A mom couldn’t find Yup’ik language books for her kids, so she made her own. Now, orders are rolling in.

Nikki Corbett had a problem.

Expecting her first child in 2017, she couldn’t find any kind of primers or basic educational materials to teach young kids the Yup’ik language.

“I don’t have a linguistics background,” said Corbett, now a mom of two and small-business owner. “But I’ve always been super passionate about sharing our Yup’ik culture and how beautiful it is and how strong it is.”

Corbett lives on the Kenai Peninsula, but she grew up in Bethel immersed in Yup’ik culture and has studied the language in college courses. She knew about some instructional materials available for young students as part of curricula at immersion schools. But there was nothing she could buy online or from a store that was the Yup’ik equivalent of an English alphabet primer or worksheets.

After a fruitless search, Corbett and a friend, Nome-based Inupiaq illustrator Katie O’Connor, decided they would have to take matters into their own hands.

“The coloring book was created for selfish reasons: I just wanted it for my kids,” Corbett said during a phone interview, pausing periodically to field requests from her 3- and 7-year-old children.

She and O’Connor received a fellowship from the Rasmuson Foundation in 2023 to create what they think is the first Yup’ik alphabet coloring book. Shepherding the project from a proposal to a physical product was not easy.

“It was kind of a slow process because both of us are moms first, then we’re small-business owners ... So it was always something we were working on on the side,” Corbett said. “Eventually, we got all of it together.”

Another complication: “The Yup’ik alphabet is so different from the English alphabet,” she added.

Spoken and written Yup’ik both have a number of qualities that do not have equivalents in English, so Corbett and O’Connor had to be deliberate about adapting the alphabet.

“There were some of the things we weren’t incorporating because it would have been confusing had we incorporated them in there,” Corbett said.

The result is 27 pages of illustrations related to Yup’ik life, each attached to a letter of the alphabet.

“I want it to be fun, and I want it to be things that are related to our culture. So, a walrus. Fry bread! We’ve got fry bread in there ... You’re not going to find a coloring book that has fry bread in it,” Corbett said. “The goal is not to memorize the letters. The goal is to just have these resources for children to see, and for it to just be fun.”

To market the “Yup’ik Alphabet Coloring Book,” made available for purchase starting in July, Corbett reached out to school districts, organizations and government agencies that have relationships with young Alaska Natives. And, because of her social media following, interest spread.

“I had people reaching out before the book was even done,” Corbett said.

Several organizations have placed bulk orders for the book, Corbett said, including a school district in the Dillingham area. Though it was dreamed up for kids, Corbett pointed out that in recent years, many adults have taken up coloring books as a relaxing hobby.

“It’s just for everybody and anybody that wants to use it,” she said.

For Corbett and O’Connor, the coloring book is a just a first step. They plan on following it up with more educational and cultural items like flash cards, videos and more.

“The goal is to just continue to create material so we can have it accessible to everyone,” Corbett said.