Category: Residential Schools

Horrors of Residency school in a picture book

I Am Not a NumberI Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing book. It is written simply and too the point, based on the life of the author’s grandmother.

In the United State, Australia, and Canada, and perhaps other places as well, the Indigenous people were removed from their homes and families and forced to become “white”. They were forbidden to speak their native tongue, forbidden to eat their food, and forbidden to have any contact with their families.

The author’s grandmother was one such child in 1928, in Canada. She and her bothers were removed from their family and forced to speak English, and beaten when they did not. This did not just happen to a few children, and this did not just happen back in the olden days. The last of the residential schools closed in 1996!

Perfect book for teachers to discuss history. Perfect book for young children to read to understand what happened.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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The horror of Residential schools in a picture book

When We Were AloneWhen We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a quiet picture book, that sneaks up on you. There are two levels here, one of a young child asking her grandmother, her kókom, why she does things the way she does. Why does she dress in bright colors, why does she wear a long braid, why does she speak in Cree?

And very simply, her kókom explains about the residential schools where these things were all forbidden.

The residential schools were a horrid part of history, and it is important for children, and adults, to realize that real people were hurt by this policy, and its legacy. It is so good that publishers are coming out with stories to tell about this, and being written by Indigenous people as well, as who better to tell their own story.

Highly recommend this book as a beautiful picture book for libraries, schools, and home libraries. This author has also been doing graphic novels of First Nation history, which are amazing as well.

Brovo to High Water Press for this, and other books they have been brining out about the First Nation experience.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

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