Series

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 

In Siksikaitsitapi: Stories of the Blackfoot People, seven authors share their stories that come from both from legend and from their personal experiences, with many of the stories in both Blackfoot and English languages. The book is illustrated with beautiful full-colour pictures and photos which help convey these stories from Blackfoot traditional and contemporary traditions and cultures. The Blackfoot Confederacy is made up of the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, and Amskapi Piikuni Nations of Southern Alberta and Montana.

Payne Many Guns' story captures the ways the Blackfoot People live in harmony with the land, animals, and stars in their traditional lands.

Crystal Many Fingers tells a delightful, modern story about animals, their gifts, and why they were put on Earth.

Sheena Potts' story beautifully illustrates the many ways love is alive in Blackfoot traditions and culture.

Tim Fox tells a humerous story about mice who are having a celebration that the raven Napi and a group of dogs want to join.

Marlene Yellow Horn shares her personal story of the teachings she learned as a child about the Elders' traditional and sacred knowledge.

DerRic Starlight tells the tale of Morning Star's diverse and loving family life.

Foreword is by Alayna Many Guns.

Educator & Series Information
The publisher recommends this title for grades 6 to 12, but these stories will appeal to children of all ages. 

This book is part of the Indigenous Spirit of Nature series.

"These Blackfoot children’s book chapters share common knowledge stories which have been shared to our authors. Common knowledge includes everyday lessons and norms. The book provides us with an opportunity to reclaim our truths. In the past, sitting with an Elder and listening to traditional stories of the stars, the animals, Napi, and our purpose was a great gift. Today, this is more important than ever. Elders gift us with purpose, strength, knowledge, and love." - Alayna Many Guns, from the foreword 

Additional Information
144 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Colour illustrations | Paperback

The Moon Speaks Cree. The season is winter, a time of adventure and learning. Written by Award-Winning Cree author Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden.

In this book, The Moon Speaks Cree, young Lawrence learns the secrets of winter survival from his parents and grandparents. Based on Larry Loyie’s Traditional Cree childhood, the story teaches lessons on: the effect of change on Indigenous People, respect for culture and history, and universal lessons of Cree culture.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended by publisher for grades 4 to 9.

This book is part of The Lawrence Series. 

Additional Information
60 Pages | Paperback

Larry Loyie, award-winning Cree author, educator, and playwright writes honestly, tenderly, with laughter as well as sadness about his traditional childhood interrupted by six years in residential school. Three books in the Lawrence Series are included in Young Man, True Stories of a Cree Childhood. This book includes 53 photographs from the author’s life.

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 4 to 9.

This anthology includes three books:

• Goodbye Buffalo Bay
• The Moon Speaks Cree
• When the Spirits Dance

Additional Information
200 Pages | Paperback 

Too fat, too thin. Muffin top, flat bum, thunder thighs, spaghetti arms. From an early age, kids learn they are judged for how they look. Both boys and girls are bombarded with messages of what they should look like and are shamed for not measuring up. When kids encounter conflict based on stereotypes of body image, they need the understanding and the tools to deal with the situation and not let it damage their self-esteem. This book provides information, relatable situations and opportunities for kids to explore cultural standards, their own assumptions and those of others.

This accessible illustrated book offers information, quizzes, comics and real-life situations to help kids think critically about body image, how it influences how others see them and how they see themselves. Considered from the viewpoints of the Internalizer, who suffers from body-image issues, the Influencer, who perpetuates negative stereotypes and standards of body image and the Witness, with conflicts around body image, this issue is identified, examined and put into a context kids can use to navigate issues of shaming and self-esteem.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 14.

The Deal With It series helps adolescents cope with conflicts in everyday life and promote peaceful homes, schools, and communities.

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.50" x 11.02"

In these entertaining profiles, twelve Indigenous actors and filmmakers tell stories of the hard work and struggle that went into their careers. Overcoming prejudice and stereotypes in the film industry, fighting to make and promote films that demonstrate an honest portrayal of Indigenous life and heritage. Their stories show how there’s more to filmmaking than acting and directing, including writing, producing, editing, designing, and special effects.

Their accomplishments include acting in major blockbuster films and TV shows, directing prize-winning documentaries, running film programs, and starting a film festival to promote Indigenous voices. These twelve have stood on the shoulders of the Indigenous filmmakers who came before them, and are working to open doors for the next generation. They encourage young people to pursue their dream, and that their stories and ideas are valuable. Includes Tantoo Cardinal, Alanis Obomsawin, and Doreen Manuel.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the First Nations Series for Young Readers. Each book is a collection of biographies of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and men who are leaders in their fields of work, in their art, and in their communities.

Recommended for ages 9-14.

Subjects:
Language Arts
> Biography

Reflecting Diversity
> First Nations & Indigenous Peoples

Additional Information
128 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Over more than 100 years, the Canadian government took 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children from their families and placed them in residential schools. In these schools, young people were assigned a number, forced to wear European-style clothes, forbidden to speak their native language, required to work, and often subjected to physical and psychological abuse. If they tried to leave the schools to return to their families, they were captured by the RCMP and forced back. Run by churches, the schools were paid for by the federal government. The last residential school closed in 1996.

It took decades for people to speak out in public about the devastating impact of residential schools. School Survivors eventually came together and launched court actions against the federal government and the churches. In 2008 the Canadian government apologized for the historic wrongs committed by the residential school system. The survivors’ lawsuits led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, and the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Commission spent six years gathering testimony and discovering the facts about residential schools.

This book includes the text of the government’s apology and summarizes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, which offer the basis for a new relationship between the Canadian government, Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people.

Reviews
"If I were purchasing materials for a high school library, I would buy at least 2 copies, and I would urge Social Studies and Aboriginal Studies classroom teachers to have at least one copy on their bookselves. Perhaps the strongest work to date in the Righting Canada's Wrongs series, Residential Schools underscores the importance of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work... Highly Recommended." — CM: Canadian Review of Materials

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Righting Canada's Wrongs series.

Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

This book is available in French: Les pensionnats indiens: Effets dévastateurs sur les peuples autochtones du Canada et appels à l'action de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation.

Additional Information
128 pages | 8.50" x 11.53" | Paperback | 2nd, Updated Edition

From the 1950s to 1980s, the Canadian government persecuted LGBTQ+ employees and tried to erase them from the military, the RCMP and the civil service under the guise that they were a “security risk,” an event that became known as the LGBT Purge. Those who were suspected of being homosexual were put under government surveillance, interrogated and intimidated. They were fired from their jobs. Many quit to avoid being exposed. Some committed suicide as a result. In the 1980s, victims of the Purge fought back with a class-action suit against the government that helped shed light on the systemic discrimination that members of the LGBTQ+ community faced from the government and the rest of society. In 2017, the federal government issued a formal apology on behalf of the government and Canadian society for the treatment of members of the LGBTQ+ community.

In this highly visual book, author Ken Setterington presents the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights using photographs, first-person accounts and excerpts from archival documents. Significant events in the struggle include the establishment of Pride parades, the Bathhouse Raids, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the passing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the LGBT Purge and the legalization of same-sex marriage.

While the government’s formal acknowledgement of past injustices started Canada on a better path toward equality, there is still work to be done. This book would be a welcome addition to any classroom or library’s social justice collection and will appeal to adults interested in LGBTQ+ rights in Canada.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 13 to 18.

The Righting Canada's Wrongs series is devoted to the exploration of the mostly unknown, and often shocking, stories of Canadian government's racist actions against various ethnic groups through our history, the fight for acknowledgment and justice, and the eventual apologies and restitution of subsequent governments.

Additional Information
96 pages | 9.01" x 11.02" | 300 photographs | Hardcover 

This book, and accompanying Vimeo documentary link, is a collection of stories about culture, history, and nationhood as told by Métis women. The Métis are known by many names — Otipemisiwak, “the people who own ourselves;” Bois Brules, “Burnt Wood;” Apeetogosan, “half brother” by the Cree; “half-breed,” historically; and are also known as “rebels” and “traitors to Canada.” They are also known as the “Forgotten People.” Few really know their story.

Many people may also think that Métis simply means “mixed,” but it does not. They are a people with a unique and proud history and Nation. In this era of reconciliation, Stories of Métis Women explains the story of the Métis Nation from their own perspective. The UN has declared this “The Decade of Indigenous Languages” and Stories of Métis Women is one of the few books available in English and Michif, which is an endangered language.

Reviews
"With this book, some of these important and unique perspectives and worldviews about who we are as a people, how we have survived as people and how we will carry on and thrive as a people are shared through the writings of the daughters, mothers, aunties and grandmothers of the Métis Nation. I congratulate the Métis women who have taken the time to share and write down some of this knowledge for generations to come." —­Jason Madden, Métis rights lawyer and citizen of the Métis Nation

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 50 black and white illustrations | Paperback

For some kids, ways they can help eliminate racial injustice might be hard to see. After all, they are taught that people in society are all equal under the law. So why then does racial conflict still exist? And what can they as individuals do about it right now? One way is for white children to understand the unearned advantages they were born with based solely on the colour of their skin. This concept is called white privilege and this book will help children of all races understand it, see how it affects them and find ways to speak out and take real action against it.

White Privilege: Deal with it in all fairness provides scenarios, quizzes and Q&As that develop readers’ understanding of the subject using situations that are realistic and that easily relate to their everyday lives. The topic is approached from three points of view: those who are “privileged,” those who identify as “racialized” and those who want to be allies.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 14.

The Deal With It series helps adolescents cope with conflicts in everyday life and promote peaceful homes, schools, and communities.

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.50" x 11.02" | Library Binding