• Age: 13 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12

"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
Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous children is now recognized as a grievous historic wrong committed against First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. Through historical photographs, documents and first-person narratives from people who survived residential schools, this book offers an account of the injustice of this period in Canadian history. It documents how official racism was confronted and finally acknowledged.

In 1857, the Gradual Civilization Act was passed in Canada with the aim of assimilating Indigenous people. In 1879, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned a report that led to residential schools across Canada. First Nations and Inuit children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools where 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 churches and funded by the federal government.

The last federally funded residential school closed in 1996. 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 worked to document the experience. More than five years after the TRC Report was released, there have been reports of unmarked graves of children being discovered at the site of former residential schools. This updated edition includes some of those findings and examines what has and what still has to be done in regards to the TRC Report’s Calls to Action.

MELANIE FLORENCE est une autrice primée d’origine crie et écossaise qui vit à Toronto, en Ontario. Elle a écrit Sans Nimâmâ, qui lui a valu le prix TD de littérature canadienne pour l’enfance et la jeunesse en 2016 ainsi que le prix Golden Oak de la Forêt de la lecture en 2017, et une nomination à titre de finaliste aux prix First Nations Communities READ, la même année. Son album Les mots volés a remporté le prix Ruth et Sylvia Schwartz de littérature jeunesse en 2018, en plus d’être finaliste au prix Marilyn Baillie. Parmi ses autres livres, on compte Righting Canada’s Wrongs: Residential Schools et les romans pour adolescents Just Lucky, He Who Dreams, The Missing, One Night et Rez Runaway. Elle a également coécrit Autumn Bird and the Runaway avec Richard Scrimger.

MELANIE FLORENCE is an award-winning writer of Cree and Scottish heritage based in Toronto, Ontario. She is the author of Missing Nimâmâ, which won the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, the 2017 Forest of Reading Golden Oak Award and was a finalist for the 2017 First Nation Communities READ award. Her most recent picture book, Stolen Words, won the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award and was a finalist for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Her other books include Righting Canada’s Wrongs: Residential Schools and the teen novels Just Lucky, He Who Dreams, The Missing, One Night, and Rez Runaway. Visit her at https://www.melanieflorence.com/.

Melanie Florence's profile page

Nicole Laurendeau est traductrice et vit à Sherbrooke, au Québec, sur le territoire ancestral de la Nation W8banaki. Elle a été enseignante au programme d’immersion française en Colombie-Britannique pendant près de 20 ans, et puise dans cette expérience pour traduire des livres pour enfants adaptés au niveau de lecture des élèves du primaire. Elle traduit également pour un public jeunesse, et s’intéresse aux récits mettant en lumière l’histoire et la culture autochtones, ayant vécu dans des communautés métisses et chipewyan du nord de la Saskatchewan. Elle est reconnaissante de tous les enseignements qu’elle y a reçus et souhaite vivement participer à la réconciliation.

Nicole Laurendeau is a translator and lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on the ancestral territory of the W8banaki Nation. She was a teacher in the French immersion program in British Columbia for almost 20 years, and draws on this experience to translate children's books adapted to the reading level of elementary students. She also translates for a youth audience, and is interested in stories highlighting Indigenous history and culture, having lived in Métis and Chipewyan communities in northern Saskatchewan. She is grateful for all the teachings she received there and eagerly wishes to participate in reconciliation.

Nicole Laurendeau's profile page

"Visually, it’s a wonderful book, organized by topic and time with pictures and blurbs, and it feels almost like a scrapbook, or a new travelling museum exhibit. Written by Melanie Florence, who is of Plains Cree and Scottish descent, this book does not allow the residential schools to be the first or the final word on Indigenous culture and life. It takes us into the vibrant life and culture before the schools, the horror and grief during, and it takes us to the other side."

Atlantic Books Today

Recommended by the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett for the #GiftingReconciliation Campaign

"A wonderful series [Righting Canada's Wrongs] of beautiful books."

Times Colonist

"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

"As one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action states, 'Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples' historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandetory education requirement for kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.' (p. 7) this book certainly contributes to this action and should be added to every junior and senior high school and public library in Canada. Highly Recommended." Rated E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!

Resource Links

"This resource-rich book is sure to spark both class and individual exploration. An index, glossary, and timeline will help teens navigate the rich content in this book, while links to online video and audio clips and the 'For Further Reading' section will guide them beyond its pages. Teachers will also find lesson plans and other helpful tools in an accompanying series Resource Guide."

National Reading Campaign

"A great book...there's a lot there for us all."

CBC Metro Morning