Description
Dear Canada: These are My Words, The Residential School Diary of Violet Pasheens, Northern Ontario 1966, is the exciting addition to Scholastic Canada's Series, Dear Canada. Authored by Ojibwe scholar, professor, and writer Ruby Slipperjack, the 200-page fictional diary presents the perspective of an Ojibwe girl who is forced to attend a residential school in 1966. Violet has to leave her loving home living with her grandma and attend a foreign institution run by nuns who insist on only speaking English and attending chapel daily. Dealing with number instead her name, Violet finds life challenging as she experiences a haircut and brutal delousing despite the lack of lice in her long hair, living in a dormitory much like a military barracks she once saw in a book's picture, all the girls wore the same uniform, and extreme loneliness. Food was a strange new world for the children who often went to bed hungry. One part-time staff person is the only friendly face among the adults. Ruby Slipperjack inserts some of her personal experiences and feelings based on her early years attending a residential school. A unique feature of this story about these schools involves the body changes of adolescent girls is addressed in this account. On the whole this account is a welcome addition to the residential school narratives especially for grades 5 to intermediate levels. Highly Recommended. Discussion Guide: http://www.scholastic.ca/dearcanada/teaching/pdfs/TheseAreMyWords.pdf