Children's Books discussion

My son just brought this home as required reading in grade 6. They are doing a unit on residential schools (here in Canada) and this is the second book he is reading. I am going to try to sneak it away from him tonight and read it so I can see what they are up to. Its a tough unit to teach that's for sure.

Would be interested to hear folks' thoughts on the book.

I haven't read the book. I loved the movie, though it did have highly disturbing parts. Overall, I found it uplifting, but upsetting.

Shannon, a few other good Canadian books for children on the residential schools are:

Fatty Legs: A True Story
and its sequel, A Stranger at Home: A True Story

No Time to Say Goodbye: Children's Stories of Kuper Island Residential School

As Long as the Rivers Flow (this is a longer picture book, very evocative and both disturbing and uplifting).

Two other picture books are also good, although I don't remember wether they are Canadian or American, but that really should not matter all that much


Shi-shi-etko
Shin-chi's Canoe


And for a truly heartbreaking, but beautifully written (and also infuriating) longer book, Sweetgrass Basket (a novel in verse about two Mohawk sisters at a residential school in the United States) is to be recommended (but should probably be read together and discussed as it is quite a tragic story).

The whole residential school episode is a tragic story. Fatty Legs: A True Story is the next one that he will read (unless he picks another) I will have to ask the teacher for the list of books that they have to choose from. They have also been watching films as part of the unit and will be seeing the Rabbit Proof Fence film as well. It is sure making the kids angry and out-raged!

I have now read Rabbit Proof Fence and the one he is reading I think is a shortened version really addressing the three kids journey home (well one didn't make it home). And there are post-scripts about where they all ended up. And a photo of two of the real girls as old women. I think it was very age appropriate.

If I get the list I will post it here.

I have seen the movie too, although haven't read the book. Movies are easier to get than books where I live.
Part of the power of the story is the fact that it is based on truth, absolute truth and these girls are just a sample of the large number of "Stolen generation" children. This policy was the result of misguided governments and we come back to the "white males" having all the power and deciding how others have to live, while they themselves have everything they want. That is our history.
My favorite part of the movie was when the black tracker saw their "tracks" but chose to pretend he hadn't. He rode away - after all he was a victim of the system himself. The older girl's intelligence and understanding of the land was their strength.
It is sad to hear that in the end they were overcome by the system, but there was never any real escape.
I always hope to hear that humanity has learnt lesson/s, but it rarely seems that way.

Shannon wrote: "The whole residential school episode is a tragic story. Fatty Legs: A True Story is the next one that he will read (unless he picks another) I will have to ask the teacher for the list of books t..."

It's good that it is making the kids outraged. It makes me hopeful (at least a bit) for the future (it was rather frustrating and infuriating to read comments actually justifying the residential schools on certain news websites).