Sammy is a seven-year-old Cree boy who has to go to residential school away from his family and the reserve because his parents spend the year on the trap line until spring. Sammy is unhappy about leaving his family, and the preparations are an ordeal—having his grandmother cut his hair short with a big scissors, and being scrubbed all over by his mother. But worse things happened when he got to school. He had to get undressed in front of the supervisor and the other boys to have a shower and he was given a number, 122. As if that were not bad enough, he was not allowed to speak Cree, which made him worried. He didn't know much English, but the other boys promised to help him, and he felt better. Sammy gets used to the routines of school that at first were so foreign to him and he enjoys learning many new things. In the spring when school is over, he learns that the residential school will be closed and next year there will be a school in his village. He will be able to live with his grandmother and his aunt while his parents are on the trapline the next year, and he can still go to school.

Honouring the Buffalo is the story of how the Buffalo gifted themselves so freely through the Creator to the Plains Cree people to help them survive. Discover how every part of the buffalo was used to provide shelter, food, clothing, tools, hunting, spiritual ceremonies and many other necessities. The legend is shared by Raymond Lavallee, Wisdom Keeper and Medicine Man of the Piapot First Nation. The narrative is written by Judith Silverthorne. Artwork is created by Mike Keepness. Link includes access to Educational Resources, including study guides and audio recordings. *2017 Silver Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book awards – Best Regional Non-Fiction; 2017 Silver Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book awards – Best Regional Non-Fiction; 2016 Winner, Next Generation Indie Book Awards – Children’s Picture Book (6 years and up); 2015 Winner, Silver Medal, Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards – Environmental Issues; 2016 Shortlisted, High Plains Award for Children’s Literature (Oct); 2016 Shortlisted, High Plains Award for Art & Photography (Oct); 2016 Shortlisted, Saskatchewan Book Award – Children’s Literature; 2016 Shortlisted, Saskatchewan Book Award – Aboriginal Peoples’ Writing (storyteller, Ray Lavallee); 2016 Shortlisted, Saskatchewan Book Award – Aboriginal Peoples’ Publishing (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing); 2015/16, Our Choice List, Canadian Children’s Book Centre

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 again. This sensitive and warmly illustrated picture book explores the intergenerational impact of the residential school system that separated young Indigenous children from their families. The story recognizes the pain of those whose culture and language were taken from them, how that pain is passed down, and how healing can also be shared.

Kookum's Red Shoes is a children's picture book from well-known children's author Peter Eyvindson. In this story, an Elder, Kookum, tells about her experiences as a child attending a Catholic-run residential school. As a child growing up in a loving family, Kookum recalls seeing a movie called The Wizard of Oz. Like Dorothy, Kookum is taken up into a wild and scary tornado as she is whisked away from her home into a foreign residential school. She had to leave her lovely red shoes behind. The story follows Kookum's at residential school and she finds her beautiful red shoes are too small when she eventually returned to her home community. This story makes a fine introduction for elementary students into the experience of one Elder who endured the trauma of residential school. By introducing the reader to the magical story of Oz the author creates a new approach to this difficult subject.

Canada's residential school system for aboriginal young people is now recognized as a grievous historic wrong committed against First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples. This book documents this subject in a format that will give all young people access to this painful part of Canadian history. In 1857, the Gradual Civilization Act was passed by the Legislature of the Province of Canada with the aim of assimilating First Nations people. In 1879, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned the "Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds." This report led to native residential schools across Canada. First Nations and Inuit children aged seven to fifteen years old were taken from their families, sometimes by force, and sent to residential schools where they were made to abandon their culture. They were dressed in uniforms, their hair was cut, they were forbidden to speak their native language, and they were often subjected to physical and psychological abuse. The schools were run by the churches and funded by the federal government. About 150,000 Indigenous children went to 130 residential schools across Canada. The last federally funded residential school closed in 1996 in Saskatchewan. The horrors that many children endured at residential schools did not go away. It took decades for people to speak out, but with the support of the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit organizations, former residential school students took the federal government and the churches to court. Their cases led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. In 2008, Prime Minister Harper formally apologized to former native residential school students for the atrocities they suffered and the role the government played in setting up the school system. The agreement included the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has since worked to document this experience and toward reconciliation. Through historical photographs, documents, and first-person narratives from First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people who survived residential schools, this book offers an account of the injustice of this period in Canadian history. It documents how this official racism was confronted and finally acknowledged.