Phyllis went to residential school looking for friendship and fun, but learned that for some reason she and her friends from the residential school weren’t treated the same way as the other kids.  Why?  

This picture book is filled with paintings that provide readers a glimpse into Phyllis’ life with her Grandma at home, and at residential school surrounded by children who all feel the same way as her. 

Have you heard of Orange Shirt Day?  This is the story that has something to do with that day.  You will have to read to the end of book to find out!

If you like to colour or draw with pencil crayons (or read to someone who does) this book is just for you!

Dipnetting with Dad is about a little boy who brings us along to go fishing–explaining the whole way–what one needs to do and why it is important.  Readers feel like part of the adventure, it feels fast-paced and busy because it is filled with colour, action & adventure.  This book entertains readers and those being read to, with its creative drawings and silly expressions.  Each turn of the page brings with it a new event sure to teach how-to’s, as you looky-loo!

Monique Gray Smith authors Speaking Our Truth in a personal way like you are her friend on a learning journey with her.  

Monique uses stories and research to connect with the history she shares, so readers begin understand the need for compassion and healing to happen in order for reconciliation to make a difference. 

This book looks like a text book but reads like a friend telling you a story of many kinds to make connections so you can see the larger picture. 

It's a reminder that we are all part of the journey toward reconciliation as Canadians, and to educate ourselves with knowledge and good medicine–love. 

Experience a heartwarming bucket list adventure as part of an Indigenous Canadian community.  Meet Tilly and eight Elders from a weekly sewing group who won't give up on supporting each other's dreams. As reader, you become part of the group and witness an Indigenous perspective. Through stories, cultural practices, and ceremonies, you will learn alongside Elders who share lessons that will stay with you on your journey.  This book is sure to inspire you to consider your own bucket list to become 'full up on love' too! 

Sometimes youth must make a stand to voice the things adults are used to seeing. 

If I Go Missing is a book that illustrates the words written by Brianna Jonnie to the authorities in charge–the Chief of the Police.  No lie.  

This graphic novel, set in a palette of black grey and red, is based on a true story from 2016, words taken from a letter that a 14 year old girl wrote and the movement that formed thereafter. *hint red dresses in the trees...

Her story provides readers a glimpse of the world from an Indigenous Canadian teen perspective; a consideration of her place, in this space, where so many others like her go missing every year.  MMIW.

Discovering Numbers is a board book about learning Cree by  recognizing English and French words on page, and, seeing the number  as pictures of items.  That is what this book is all about!

Read this book with your little ones and learn to count up to ten with three different languages, English French and Cree by turning each page to a new piece of art.  

Children will enjoy the colours change as the counting begins, and parents will enjoy the pronunciation tables when they get to the end!

Can you imagine walking on a frozen lake of ice and then breaking a hole in it, so you can fish for your supper?--No?  Not yet!  After reading Fishing with Grandma, you will!

When we listen and spend time with our Elders, we can learn so much more than just one lesson.  Read this book and learn about family, sharing time, and learning traditional skills.  

Atii (let’s go!) with a little grandson, his sister Jeela and his Anaanatsiaq (Grandma) on their fishing day. They will tell you what to do to prepare to fish on a lake of ice, as well as, teach you words and the names of tools in another language–Inuktitut.

The Girl and the Wolf begins a lot like the little red riding hood fairy tale–except it isn’t that story.  

This book looks dark and scary with its gloomy dark forrest built of paper crafty illustrations–but it isn’t that kind of story.  

This is an Indigenous kind of story.  It is about getting lost in the moment–-when the world is our playground and the animals in it, our friends.   You will have to read this story to find out how it ends!

This is a story about adolescent research, persistence and love. 

Become a part of a teenage investigative team, the Mighty Muskrats, learn how to connect clues with real life procedures that unlock files that hold the key to the missing auntie.  

This book is set in Canada, so it feels familiar to Canadian readers.  Kids in this book are empowered by curiosity and desire to support their grandfather’s longing to know where his sister is.  Learn what they discover about Canada’s history, and their family by reading The Case of the Missing Auntie.  

I would describe this book as poetry set within paintings.

If you are looking for something different,

something colourful,

something simple,

yet fun.  

I suggest that you read,
We Learn from the Sun.  

Interconnected, internal,
whimsical designs... 

eyes move from painting to poetry,

then to painting...
…one more time.  

Colours change as seasons do,

as symbols shift
describing, 
then ending,

all paintings,
and the rhyme.  

You will have to see it to read it and vice versa, 
its part of how its done. 

We Learn from the Sun is designed of imagery and seven sacred teachings, all together as one. 
~XFree (poem description)

I Lost My Talk is a poem story, a story told through a poem about why reconciliation is important to Indigenous peoples…but it doesn’t say it that way.

It is about the experience of a girl who attended residential school and also about finding yourself and the courage to say the things that need to be said. 

This book isn’t just a normal storybook, it's a picture book of illustrations that are meant for you to consider for the words only take a small part of each page.  

If you are looking for a book for opening discussion or for having one quietly with yourself, this is the book for you.

This is a different kind of teen story, because its one set in Canada, with a kid who is Indigenous, alone, in foster care, at a new school and her name is Echo Desjardins.  

Imagine having the chance to have another life, at another time, when the life you currently have, sucks.  

That’s what this story is about, but, its also about history and...more. You’ll have to read to find out, because guess what, if you like them apples the story continues in:
Vol. 2 (Red River Resistance), Vol. 3(Northwest Resistance), & Vol. 4 (Road Allowance Era).

This book leads readers through a painted world of graphic art sharing through story the life cycle of the gray mother wolf. 

Its story speaks from an Indigenous perspective that considers wolves through their place as part of the ecosystem and wilderness community. 

Read the Wolf Mother and learn about the Gitxsan moons and how the lands that surround the ‘the river of mist’ recognize the role wolf mother plays.  

This book is good for kids who like the look of graphic novels, for learning about ecosystems, and for a book about wolves for a research assignment.

Dez found out and is not going to let them.  She decides that the only way that she can be safe from going missing is to become missing on her own. 

Read and watch a Canadian story unfold about an Indigenous teenage girl looking for an alternative to being taken away from her Kokum.   

Surviving in the City is a graphic novel set in present time; it has comic looking pages with Indigenous teenage faces.