First Nation Communities Read

Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is the second book in a series by renowned Ojibwe storyteller Bomgiizhik Isaac Murdoch, following on The Trail of Nenaboozhoo and Other Creation Stories (2019). Serpents and Other Spiritual Beings is a collection of traditional Ojibwe/Anishinaabe stories transliterated directly from Murdoch's oral storytelling. Part history, legend, and mythology, these are stories of tradition, magic and transformation, morality and object lessons, involving powerful spirit-beings in serpent form. The stories appear in both English and Anishinaabemowin, with translations by Patricia BigGeorge. Murdoch's traditional-style Ojibwe artwork provides beautiful illustrations throughout.

Reviews
"'When the Thunderbirds and Serpents fight, they feed off each other, you know great medicine gets cast across the land. We get our life from that.' So writes storyteller Isaac Murdoch as he shares his Elders' stories about tunnels beneath the earth, rich laws, philosophies, teachings, power from up there, down there, and all around us, until we too hear the thunders as they bring us into the world of wahkotowin, all our relations. How privileged and blessed we are to be able to read the Ahtyokaywina of our people."--Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed

"Gather around, for here are oral stories transcribed so they retain the flavour of a narrative spoken aloud, and translated into Anishinaabemowin; perfect for language-learners. I love the way these stories infuse the spirit world into an every-day context, these are not dusty old legends, but a living way of seeing the world around us in the here and now."--Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler, author of Ghost Lake

Educator & Series Information
Dual-Language: English and Anishinaabemowin.

Anishinaabemowin translation by Patricia BigGeorge, who is an Anishinaabemowin speaker and translator.

This book is Vol. 2 in the Ojibwe History Series.

Additional Information
100 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 20 illustrations | Paperback 

A young Indigenous girl searching for a sense of home finds strength and courage in her gifts, her deepening connection to the land, and her own cultural awakening in this moving coming-of-age story.

The last thing that twelve-year old Misko wants to do is to move away from the city to spend time on the rez with her grandmother. And yet she feels strangely compelled to go, drawn by a pull that she feels in her dreams. Maybe she can finally find out what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared when Misko was four years old.

Misko’s relationship to the rez shifts when she encounters a spirited horse named Mishtadim. But Mishtadim is being violently broken by the rancher next door and his son Thomas. Misko and Thomas clash at first, only to find themselves drawn together by the wild horse. As Misko slowly discovers her unique bond with Mishtadim, she feels a sense of belonging and comes to understand the beauty of the world all around her.

She Holds Up the Stars is a powerful story of reconciliation and the interwoven threads that tie us to family, to the land, and to our own sense of self.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 10 to 14.

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.50" x 7.50" | Paperback

From the 1960s through the 1980s the Canadian Children's Aid Society engaged in a large-scale program of removing First Nations children from their families and communities and adopting them out to non-Indigenous families. This systemic abduction of untold thousands of children came to be known as the Sixties Scoop. The lasting disruption from the loss of family and culture is only now starting to be spoken of publicly, as are stories of strength and survivance.

In Silence to Strength: Writings and Reflections on the 60s Scoop, editor Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith gathers together contributions from twenty Sixties Scoop survivors from across the territories of Canada. This anthology includes poems, stories and personal essays from contributors such as Alice McKay, D.B. McLeod, David Montgomery, Doreen Parenteau, Tylor Pennock, Terry Swan, Lisa Wilder, and many more. Courageous writings and reflections that prove there is strength in telling a story, and power in ending the silence of the past.

Reviews
"This is an excellent collection and I recommend it to all who are interested in learning the truth about Indigenous Peoples by reading what they have written, not what has been written about them by non-Indigenous writers. The striking cover art is by George Littlechild, also a survivor of the Sixties Scoop." - MariJo Moore

Additional Information
140 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

In this faithful retelling of a traditional story from the Kugaaruk region, told by Elder Levi Illuitok, a father must save his infant child from an amajurjuk, an ogress known to steal children. When the ogress takes advantage of the child’s mother being blind to trick her into giving away her child, the child’s father embarks on a quest to save his infant from certain death.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Additional Information
28 pages | 8.00" x 9.50" | Paperback

Windy Lake First Nation is hosting the annual Trappers Festival, and the four Mighty Muskrats are excited about the sled-dog races and the chance to visit with family and friends from far and wide. But during the Teen Sled Race, the lead dog is the victim of a frightening accident that may be more than it seems.

Between mysterious strangers seen lurking by the trail and a loud group of animal rights protestors, the Muskrats have a lot of suspects. Despite the chill of winter, the case is heating up for Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee!

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the fun and adventurous A Mighty Muskrat Mystery Series. This series puts an Indigenous spin on the classic Hardy Boys and Three Investigators books. 

Recommended for ages 9-12.

Additional Information
232 pages | 5.25" x 7.50" | Paperback

I don’t recall seeing books when I was a little boy. But the old people, they grew up listening to stories. And so, every night, when the old people were done their evening prayers, they would sit and they would tell us stories too.

At the time of the spring thaw, the Rocky Cree fill their canoes with furs, eager to trade with the new visitors in mistiwāsahak (Hudson Bay). But not all of the new visitors are welcome.

When the canoes return home to the shores of the misinipī river, the Rocky Cree begin to collapse one by one, drenched in sweat and slowly slipping into delirium. Kākakiw struggles to help the sick as more and more people pass into the spirit world. Exhausted physically, emotionally, and spiritually, he seeks guidance through prayer.

Hope finally comes with a visitor in the night: one of the Little People, small beings who are just like us. If Kākakiw can journey to their home, he will be given the medicine his people need. All he has to do is paddle through a cliff of solid bedrock to get there.

To save his people from certain death, Kākakiw must overcome doubt to follow the traditional teachings of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak and trust in the gift of the Little People.

In this illustrated short story for all ages, celebrated Rocky Cree storyteller William Dumas shares a teaching about hope in the face of adversity. This book is a companion story to The Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak series.

Reviews
"A tale rich with warmth and wonder that not only documents traditions but carries them on." — David A. Robertson, author The Barren Grounds

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 11.

Reading Level: Lexile® Framework for Reading: 870L

This book is a companion story to The Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak series. This series is about the Asiniskaw Īthiniwak (Rocky Cree) of Northern Manitoba. Corresponding to the six seasons of sīkwan (spring), nīpin (summer), takwakin (fall), mikiskow (freeze-up), pipon (winter), and mithoskamin (break-up), the books explore the language, culture, knowledge, territory, and history of the 17th century Rocky Cree people through story and images. The groundbreaking series centres Indigenous ways of knowing and includes insights from a wide range of disciplines—cross-cultural education, history, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, literature, oral culture and storytelling, experiential and community-based learning, and art.

Contains some Cree language/words, and a glossary of them.

Additional Information
48 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Hardcover

In this second book in the Narnia-inspired Indigenous middle-grade fantasy series, Eli and Morgan journey once more to Misewa, travelling back in time.

Back at home after their first adventure in the Barren Grounds, Eli and Morgan each struggle with personal issues: Eli is being bullied at school, and tries to hide it from Morgan, while Morgan has to make an important decision about her birth mother. They turn to the place where they know they can learn the most, and make the journey to Misewa to visit their animal friends. This time they travel back in time and meet a young fisher that might just be their lost friend. But they discover that the village is once again in peril, and they must dig deep within themselves to find the strength to protect their beloved friends. Can they carry this strength back home to face their own challenges?

Awards

• 2022 Silver Birch Award for Fiction

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 10+. 

This is the second book in the Misewa Saga.

This book is available in French: Le grand ours.

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.62" x 8.25" | Paperback

The Missing Caribou Hide is a story that passes through the years in Tłı̨chǫ history. It tells of times when people lived a simpler life built around the fur trade, hard work and helping one another. It tells of times when relationships with animals and our environment were stronger than they are today.

In this story, a young girl who lives with her grandmother, wishes to own a sled so that she can go sliding like the other children in her community. However, her grandmother needs her to help with chores around the home. The young girl has developed a friendship with Tatsǫ̀ (Raven), Į̀hk'aa (Canada Jay), Nǫ̀mba (Weasel) and Nǫge (Fox). Because of her kindness, the four animal friends decide to help her out.

Included in this book is the use of Tłı̨chǫ language as well as Tłı̨chǫ legends told about these animals from the traditional stories of community elders. It has been edited and translated by the community members themselves.

Reviews
“This book is a reminder of Tlicho and their relationship and connections to their environment and the animals they share their lands with. These stories are important teachings to the cultural history of the Dene People. Not only should the book be in every classroom, but every Canadian should also read these stories to help understand Indigenous peoples and their culture. "The Missing Caribou Hide" can help bridge the gap between not only Tlicho parent and child, but also help connect Indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians alike." — Paul Andrew, Order of the Northwest Territories

Educator Information
Recommended for children.

Included in this book is the use of Tlicho language as well as Tlicho stories told about these animals from the traditonal stories of community elders.  It has been edited and translated by the community members themselves.  A pronunciation guide is found at the back of the book.

Includes a Christmas story.

Additional Information

48 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Paperback

“The Net” features a girl and her mother, known only as the mother and the daughter, who arrive at their secluded cabin on a frozen lake to find their fishing net has been attacked, a massive hole ripped through the middle. After the net has been mended and the night’s catch eaten, the daughter sits awake playing with a bit of leftover netting string. When she was a girl, her grandmother taught her to make string figures—just as her mother had taught her—a game played by Inuit for generations, but a game not to be taken lightly . . . as the daughter plays late into the night, and the mother sleeps, other monstrous forces are soon awakened from beneath the frozen lake.

In “Before Dawn” a young boy runs out onto the tundra to play with his new friend by his side, venturing far beyond his mother’s rule that he not stray past the inuksuk on the horizon. The boy’s friend beckons him farther and farther, and the farther they get from home, the more the friend seems to change . . . and shift . . . until he is no longer human at all. Horrified, the boy listens to the creature’s proposition: return home before dawn, or be lost forever to the other side . . .

Complemented by colour illustrations from illustrator Toma Feizo Gas, The Other Ones is a fresh take on modern horror by an exciting new Inuit voice.

Educator Information
Short stories.

Additional Information
50 pages | 6.75" x 8.75" | Hardcover

Award-winning Indigenous author Harold R. Johnson discusses the promise and potential of storytelling.

Approached by an ecumenical society representing many faiths, from Judeo-Christians to fellow members of First Nations, Harold R. Johnson agreed to host a group who wanted to hear him speak about the power of storytelling. This book is the outcome of that gathering. In The Power of Story, Johnson explains the role of storytelling in every aspect of human life, from personal identity to history and the social contracts that structure our societies, and illustrates how we can direct its potential to re-create and reform not only our own lives, but the life we share. Companionable, clear-eyed, and, above all, optimistic, Johnson’s message is both a dire warning and a direct invitation to each of us to imagine and create, together, the world we want to live in.

Reviews
"Recently in conversation with a friend I remarked that the whole world is a story. Harold Johnson fills that phrase with profound meaning in The Power of Story as he takes ancient figures and modernizes their storied wit and role in creating the worlds we perceive and the boundaries we need. Harold blessed us one last time with a profound conversation on the role of story in every aspect of our lives."—Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians

“The Power of Story begins where all great stories begin: around a fire. Harold Johnson gives us a seat at the fire to listen and take into ourselves some spellbinding, bracing, and provocative stories told with a view to healing and transforming. As Harold writes ‘It’s starting to get darker now, and a bright fire will help.’ The Power of Story is that bright fire. And it will help. His final book is a balm for our times.”—Shelagh Rogers

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

From the bestselling author of The Break comes a staggering intergenerational saga that explores how connected we are, even when we’re no longer together—even when we’re forced apart.

Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten what freedom feels like. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly.

After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she’s hoping for a new chapter in her life, only to find herself once again in a strange house surrounded by strangers. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she’ll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she’s caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. Between flickering moments of warmth and support, the women diverge and reconnect, fighting to survive in a fractured system that pretends to offer success but expects them to fail. Facing the distinct blade of racism from those they trusted most, they urge one another to move through the darkness, all the while wondering if they’ll ever emerge safely on the other side.

A breathtaking companion to her bestselling debut The Break, Vermette’s The Strangers brings readers into the dynamic world of the Stranger family, the strength of their bond, the shared pain in their past, and the light that beckons from the horizon. This is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that—despite everything—refuse to be broken.

Reviews
“Katherena Vermette’s The Strangers is a deeply moving story of how colonial institutions continue to bear down on and disrupt the lives of Indigenous women and girls. It is a powerful collective portrait of struggle and resistance, of what it’s like to be in an Indigenous body in twenty-first century Canada. In the end, it adds up to an engrossingly written ode to another kind of care, one against the grain of suffering. A brilliant follow-up!”—Billy-Ray Belcourt, bestselling author of A History of My Brief Body

“The Strangers is a unique and essential triumph of a novel. It is revelatory in its artistry—in its constellating of family against violent separation, in its austere poetics of voice and consciousness.  Katherena Vermette has proven once again that she is among the most gifted and relevant writers of our time: someone with everything to teach us about the telling of necessary stories, about grieving the fallen, honouring survival, and revealing the fiercest beauty.” —David Chariandy, award-winning author of Brother and I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You

Additional Information
352 pages | 5.10" x 7.90" | Paperback

A poignant and evocative novel about the bonds of family and the gifts offered by the land.

When a troubled father and his estranged teenage daughter head out onto the land in search of the family trapline, they find their way back to themselves, and to each other.

Deep in the night, Matthew paces the house, unable to rest. Though his sixteen-year-old daughter, Holly, lies sleeping on the other side of the bedroom door, she is light years away from him. How can he bridge the gap between them when he can’t shake the emptiness he feels inside? Holly knows her father is drifting further from her; what she doesn’t understand is why. Could it be her fault that he seems intent on throwing everything away, including their relationship?

Following a devastating tragedy, Matthew and Holly head out onto the land in search of a long-lost cabin on the family trapline, miles from the Cree community they once called home. But each of them is searching for something more than a place. Matthew hopes to reconnect with the father he has just lost; Holly goes with him because she knows the father she is afraid of losing won’t be able to walk away.

When things go wrong during the journey, they find they have only each other to turn to for support. What happens to father and daughter on the land will test them, and eventually heal them, in ways they never thought possible.

Reviews
“Robertson shines in A Theory of Crows, a multilayered story of love, loss, healing and ultimately belonging. A family on the brink of shattering finds its way through ancient teachings of infinite connection and the roots of truth in the earth’s living memory.” — Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians, winner of CBC Canada Reads

“In weaving together themes of identity, belonging, grief and land, The Theory of Crows is a novel that approaches rapture.” — Yann Martel, author of The High Mountains of Portugal and Life of Pi

“A brilliantly empathetic story that is both gentle and fierce.” — Thea Lim, author of An Ocean of Minutes

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

From epic ventures into mythic and fantastical tales to the everyday trials of getting the laundry done, NShannacappo’s debut poetry collection follows many journeys through darkness to hope, healing and heroism. Pure and hauntingly beautiful turns of phrase sound out in the voices of angels, monsters and demons, mythic characters, and the sometimes wry, sometimes grieving voice of a man once broken in heart, spirit, and mind. Through the Eyes of Asunder begins and ends with hope, and takes the reader through sorrow and sadness to bright moments of happiness and love.

Reviews
“Neal Shannacappo is a spiritual thinker. The poetry and life’s perspectives he shares in this collation remind us of the unconditional love and support one can access through the Creator-given learning ways we as human beings are blessed to be born with. Read his words! Feed them to your heart, digest them spiritually and you will benefit from the medicine intended in every word and stanza.”—Albert Dumont, 2021–2022 Poet Laureate for Ottawa and author of Sitting by the Rapids.

“Reading this book, it felt many times like I had stumbled upon a shoebox filled with letters not sent and journals put away for safekeeping. You feel like you shouldn’t pry, but you just can’t help yourself. It was a wonderful read.”—John Brady McDonald, author of KITOTAM

Additional Information
143 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 6 illustrations | Paperback

The poems in Trailer Park Shakes are direct and vernacular, rooted in community--a working-class Métis voice rarely heard from.

These poems, while dreamlike and playful, bear unflinching witness to the workings of injustice--how violence is channeled through institutions and refracted intimately between people, becoming intertwined with the full range of human experience, including care and love. Trailer Park Shakes is a book that seems to want to hold everything--an entire cross-section of lived experience--written by a poet whose courage, attention, and capacity to trace contradiction inspire trust in her words' embrace. Dion-Glowa's poems are quietly philosophical, with a heartfelt, self-possessed politic.

Reviews
"Dion-Glowa's voice crackles with frank, startling insight." — Sachiko Murakami, author of Render

"As I read this work, I was taken back, time and again, to those days when I was a young street poet who had so much to say at a time where it felt like no one was listening. There are many times when sentiment needs to be expressed in the most bold and unapologetic way it can, and the brashness and frank delivery found in this work is the hallmark of a collection that should and will rattle your cage and shine a light where it is needed. These are not exploitative poems, nor are they the Victim Impact Statement of a wounded spirit. This collection is the chronicle of an eyewitness to reality, without compromise." — John Brady McDonald, Nehiyawak-Metis poet and artist, author of Kitotam

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.75" x 8.50" | Paperback

In this final installation of the Overhead Series, Lucy Hemphill once again transports the reader with intimate revelations on identity by exploring both her personal and ancestral relationship to the forest and the quiet sentinels that root together everything. Hemphill’s prose is extraordinary in its combination of self-awareness yet unselfconscious honesty and skillful restraint, creating a sense of connection under the tangle of foliage and limb that ever-reach skyward. Masterfully illustrated by artist Michael Joyal, his evocative dendrological drawings contribute to the overall sensory and transcendent experience.

Reviews
"Lucy Hemphill has done a marvellous thing. Her book is a passkey that opens a door into the forest of her childhood. Her voice is gentle but direct, the author tells us the story of trees, their gift and our loss if we are not careful. Enhanced with Michael Joyal’s rich illustrations, Hemphill uses her Indigenous language to teach us that trees are our ancestors, living spirits, and as such we are to honour them." – Mary Barnes

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Overhead Series.

Additional Information
96 pages | 8.50" x 5.50" | 20 illustrations | Fiction