Title search results
Showing 61 - 80 of 88 items
The mask that sang
By Susan Currie. 2016
When Cass's estranged grandmother unexpectedly leaves her house and savings to Cass and her mom, it is just the thing…
they need to change their lives. Cass is being bullied at school, and her mom just lost her job—again—so they pack up and move in. Cass finds an intriguing and powerful mask in her new room, and she is inexplicably drawn to it. A strange relationship grows between Cass and the mask; it sings her songs, shows her visions of past traumas and encourages her to be brave when facing bullies. The mask eventually leads her to discover her own Cayuga heritage and leads her into the arms of a community that's been waiting for them. Winner of the Second Story Press Aboriginal Writing Contest. Grades 3-6. 2016.The hill
By Karen Bass. 2016
Jared’s plane has crashed in the Alberta wilderness, and Kyle is first on the scene. When Jared insists on hiking…
up the highest hill in search of cell phone reception, Kyle hesitates; his Cree grandmother has always forbidden him to go near it. There’s no stopping Jared, though, so Kyle reluctantly follows. After a night spent on the hilltop - with no cell service - the teens discover something odd: the plane has disappeared. Nothing in the forest surrounding them seems right. In fact, things seem very wrong. And worst of all, something - a creature that should only exist in legend - is hunting them. For senior high readers. 2016.Wenjack
By Joseph Boyden. 2016
An Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School. He realizes too late just how far away home…
is. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from. Bestseller. 2016.These are my words: the residential school diary of Violet Pesheens (Dear Canada)
By Ruby Slipperjack. 2016
Twelve-year-old Violet Pesheens is taken away to Residential School in 1966. The diary recounts her experiences of travelling there, the…
first day, and first months, focusing on the everyday life she experiences--the school routine, battles with Cree girls, being quarantined over Christmas, getting home at Easter and reuniting with her family. When the time comes to gather at the train station for the trip back to the residential school, her mother looks her in the eye and asks, "Do you want to go back, or come with us to the trapline?" Violet knows the choice she must make. Grades 4-7. 2016.The break
By Katherena Vermette. 2016
When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break…
- a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house - she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime. In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim - police, family, and friends - tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2017. Winner of the 2017 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award, the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, the 2017 Evergreen Award and the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award. 2016.The thundermaker
By Alan Syliboy. 2015
Based on Mi'kmaw artist Alan Syliboy's mixed-media exhibit. Big Thunder teaches his son, Little Thunder, about the important responsibility he…
has making thunder for his people. Little Thunder learns about his Mi’kmaw identity through his father’s teachings and his mother’s traditional stories. Grades K-3. 2015.Black apple: a novel
By Joan Crate. 2016
Torn from her home and delivered to St. Mark’s Residential School for Girls by government decree, young Rose Marie (Sinopaki)…
finds herself in an alien universe where nothing of her previous life is tolerated, not even her Blackfoot name. For she has entered into the world of the Sisters of Brotherly Love, an order of nuns dedicated to saving the Indigenous children from damnation. Life under the sharp eye of Mother Grace becomes an endless series of torments, and Rose Marie starts to see shapes in her dreams that warn her of unspoken dangers and mysteries that threaten to engulf her. 2016.Indian Horse
By Richard Wagamese. 2012
Saul Indian Horse is dying in a hospice, remembering the life he led as a northern Ojibway. For Saul, taken…
forcibly from the land and his family when he's sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. Winner of CODE's Burt Award for First Nations, Méris, and Inuit Literature. Bestseller. 2012.Sweetest Kulu
By Celina Kalluk, Alexandria Neonakis. 2014
This bedtime poem, written by acclaimed Inuit throat singer Celina Kalluk, describes the gifts given to a newborn baby by…
all the animals of the Arctic. Lyrically and tenderly told by a mother speaking to her own little "Kulu," an Inuktitut term of endearment often bestowed upon babies and young children, this book is infused with the traditional Inuit values of love and respect for the land and its animal inhabitants. Grades K-3. 2014.Birdie
By Tracey Lindberg. 2015
Bernice Meetoos, a Cree woman, leaves her home in Northern Alberta following tragedy and travels to Gibsons, BC. She is…
on something of a vision quest, seeking to understand the messages from The Frugal Gourmet (one of the only television shows available on CBC North) that come to her in her dreams. She is also driven by the desire to meet Pat Johns, who played Jesse on The Beachcombers. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2016. 2015.The evolution of Alice
By David Robertson. 2014
Alice, a single mother raising her three young daughters on the rez where she grew up, has never had an…
easy life, but has managed to get by with the support of her best friend, Gideon, and her family. When an unthinkable loss occurs, Alice is forced onto a different path, one that will challenge her belief in herself and the world she thought she knew. 2014.The back of the turtle
By Thomas King. 2014
Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel’s sister.…
The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel’s family, and the wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for DowSanto, created GreenSweep, and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky? Bestseller. Winner of the 2014 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. 2014.Which way should I go?
By Sylvia Olsen, Kasia Charko, Ron Martin. 2007
Joey is a happy Nuu-chah-nulth boy, eager to help and quick to see the bright side of things. But when…
he loses his beloved grandmother, the sun goes out in his world. Fortunately, she has left something of herself behind—a song, which keeps knocking on Joey's heart, and a dance, which urges him to get up on his feet and enjoy life again. Grades 2-4 and older readers. 2007.Medicine walk
By Richard Wagamese. 2014
Franklin Starlight is sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with his real father, Eldon. The…
rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but when he is called to visit his father, he answers it as a son's duty. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner. What ensues is a journey through the rugged and beautiful backcountry of the B.C. Interior, and a journey into the past, as the two men push forward to Eldon's end. Bestseller. Winner of the 2015 Evergreen Award. 2014.Yetsa's sweater
By Sylvia Olsen, Joan Larson. 2006
On a fresh spring day, young Yetsa, her mother and her grandmother gather to prepare the sheep fleeces piled in…
Grandma's yard. As they clean, wash and dry the fleece, laughter and hard work connect the three generations. It's the experience of the creation of Cowichan sweaters. Each sweater is unique, and its design tells a story. Grades 2-4 and older readers. 2006.Red Wolf
By Jennifer Dance. 2014
Life is changing for Canada's Anishnaabek Nation and for the wolf packs that share their territory. In the late 1800s,…
both Native people and wolves are being forced from the land. Starving and lonely, an orphaned timber wolf is befriended by a boy named Red Wolf. But under the Indian Act, Red Wolf is forced to attend a residential school far from the life he knows, and the wolf is alone once more. Courage, love and fate reunite the pair, and they embark on a perilous journey home. But with winter closing in, will Red Wolf and Crooked Ear survive? And if they do, what will they find? For junior high readers. 2014.The legend of the fog
By Qaunak Mikkigak, Louise Flaherty, Neil Christopher, Danny Christopher, Joanne Schwartz. 2011
In this traditional Inuit story, a simple walk on the tundra becomes a life or death journey for a young…
man. When he comes across a giant who wants to take him home and cook him for dinner, the young man’s quick thinking saves him from being devoured by the giant and his family, and in the process releases the first fog into the world. Grades K-3. 2011.The orenda
By Joseph Boyden. 2013
"The Orenda" opens with a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of the young Iroquois Snow Falls, a spirited girl with…
a special gift. Her captor, Bird, is an elder and one of the Huron nation’s great warriors and statesmen. It has been years since the murder of his family, but they are never far from his mind. In Snow Falls, Bird recognizes the ghost of his lost daughter and sees that the girl possesses powerful magic that will be useful to him on the troubled road ahead. Bird’s people have battled the Iroquois for as long as he can remember, but both tribes now face a new, more dangerous threat from afar. Christophe, a charismatic Jesuit missionary, has found his calling among the Huron, and devotes himself to learning and understanding their customs and language in order to lead them to Christ. Bestseller. Winner of Canada Reads 2014. 2013.Shi-shi-etko
By Nicola I Campbell, Kim LaFave. 2005
Shi-shi-etko just has four days until she will have to leave her family and everything she knows to attend residential…
school. She spends her last precious days at home treasuring and appreciating the beauty of her world — the dancing sunlight, the tall grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather’s paddle song. Grades K-3. 2005.Shin-chi's canoe
By Nicola I Campbell, Kim LaFave. 2008
When they arrive at school, Shi-shi-etko reminds Shinchi, her six-year-old brother, that they can only use their English names and…
that they can't speak to each other. For Shinchi, life becomes an endless cycle of church mass, school, and work, punctuated by skimpy meals. He finds solace at the river, clutching a tiny cedar canoe, a gift from his father, and dreaming of the day when the salmon return to the river — a sign that it’s almost time to return home. Grades K-3. 2008.