Residential Schools - Recommended reading for children and teens

Updated April 9, 2024
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Ga's = The train
Callaghan, Jodie
Paper Book
The dual-language edition, in English and Mi'gmaq, of the Silver Birch Express-nominated title, The Train. Ashley meets her great-uncle by the old train tracks near their community in Nova Scotia. Ashley sees his sadness, and Uncle tells her of the day years ago when he and the...
The marrow thieves
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of the 2017 Kirkus PrizeWinner of the 2018 Sunburst Award Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit...

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook formats as well as a Book Club Kit.

The marrow thieves
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text) Winner of the 2017 Kirkus PrizeWinner of the 2018 Sunburst Award Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit...

Avec Pilleurs de reves, Cherie Dimaline cree un monde dystopique aussi lugubre qu'inquietant, qui ne nous est pourtant pas completement etranger. Elle parvient a tisser des liens troublants entre cet univers fictif et le monde dans lequel nous vivons, presentant une allegorie puissante du colonialisme en Amerique du Nord.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

Shin-chi's canoe
Campbell, Nicola I.
Paper Book
Winner of the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and finalist for the Governor General's Award: Children's Illustration This moving sequel to the award-winning Shi-shi-etko tells the story of two children's experience at residential school. Shi-shi-etko is about to return for her...

Also available in eBook format.

Shin-chi's canoe
Campbell, Nicola I.
Paper Book
Winner of the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and finalist for the Governor General's Award: Children's Illustration This moving sequel to the award-winning Shi-shi-etko tells the story of two children's experience at residential school. Shi-shi-etko is about to return for her...

Shi-shi-etko s'apprete a retourner au pensionnat indien pour une deuxieme annee, cette fois-ci accompagnee de son petit frere de six ans, Shin-chi. Elle lui remet une pirogue de cedre miniature, cadeau symbolique de leur pere qui represente tout ce dont Shin-chi doit se souvenir et garder secret.

Aussi disponible en format numerique.

I am not a number
Dupuis, Jenny Kay.
Paper Book
When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she...

Also available in eBook format.

I am not a number
Dupuis, Jenny Kay
Paper Book
When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she...
When I was eight
Jordan-Fenton, Christy
Paper Book
Bestselling memoir Fatty Legs for younger readers. Olemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read. Ignoring her father's warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the outsiders' school to learn. The nuns at the school call her Margaret. They cut off her...
When I was eight
Jordan-Fenton, Christy
Paper Book
Bestselling memoir Fatty Legs for younger readers. Olemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read. Ignoring her father's warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the outsiders' school to learn. The nuns at the school call her Margaret. They cut off her...
Not my girl
Jordan-Fenton, Christy
Paper Book
Margaret can't wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected. Based on the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, and complemented by evocative illustrations, Not My Girl makes the original, award-winning memoir, A Stranger at Home, accessible to younger children. It is...
Stolen words
Florence, Melanie.
Paper Book
The story of the beautiful relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather how to say something in his language - Cree - he admits that his language was stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather find his language...
Stolen words
Florence, Melanie
Paper Book
The story of the beautiful relationship between a little girl and her grandfather. When she asks her grandfather how to say something in his language - Cree - he admits that his language was stolen from him when he was a boy. The little girl then sets out to help her grandfather find his language...
The secret pocket
Janicki, Peggy
Paper Book
★"Captures the sympathy of readers and holds their attention...An age-appropriate telling by an Indigenous creative team of a tragic historical period."--School Library Journal, starred review The true story of how Indigenous girls at a residential school sewed secret pockets into...
Also available in eBook format.
A stranger at home : a true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy.
Paper Book
Margaret can't wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected. Traveling to be reunited with her family in the arctic, 10-year-old Margaret Pokiak can hardly contain her excitement. It's been two years since her parents delivered her to the school run by the dark...

Also available in DAISY and eBook formats.

A stranger at home : a true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy.
Paper Book
Margaret can't wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected. Traveling to be reunited with her family in the arctic, 10-year-old Margaret Pokiak can hardly contain her excitement. It's been two years since her parents delivered her to the school run by the dark...
Fatty legs : a true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy.
Paper Book
Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential...
Also available in DAISY and eBook format.
Fatty legs : a true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy.
Paper Book
Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential...
The scarf and the butterfly : a graphic memoir of hope and healing
Ittusardjuat, Monica
Paper Book
"'There's an opening above me, but it's far, and I have to stack up rocks to jump up, and it's almost impossible to get out.' That's when I realized that I was stripped of my identity, and there was nothing of my culture left in me. It was like I wasn't in my body anymore. It was bare and...

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