First Nation Communities Read Program



For more information, contact Patty Lawlor, SOLS' First Nations Consultant, at   

First Nation Communities Read Titles Archive

First Nation Communities Read title selections to date include:

2008

Ancient Thunder written and illustrated by Leo Yerxa. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2006.

Ancient Thunder is a visionary book celebrating wild horses and the natural world of the prairies. Using an extraordinary technique, Yerxa, an artist of Ojibway ancestry, makes paper look like leather so that his illustrations seem to be painted on leather shirts. Each shirt is accompanied by a rich song of praise for the wild horses that came to play such an important role in the lives of First Peoples.


2007    
Program suspended

2006

As Long as the Rivers Flow  written by Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden. Illustrated by Heather D. Holmlund. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2002.

This memoir is capable of speaking to young and old. Set in 1944, it recreates the summer Lawrence Loyie was ten years old, the last summer he spent with his Cree family before a Canadian government program forced him to attend residential school.
 

2005

SkySisters written by Jan Bourdeau Waboose, illustrated by Brian Deines, and published by Kids Can Press, 2000.

In this story about a cold winter’s night in Northern Ontario, contemporary sisters Allie and Alex (or Nimise and Nishiimi, the Ojibway names they call themselves) follow a family tradition and set out in search of the SkySpirits which their mother has assured them will come that very night.
 

2004

Solomon’s Tree inspired by Tsimpshian master carver Victor Reece, written by Andrea Spalding, illustrated by Janet Wilson and published by Orca Book Publishers, 2002.

When a storm uproots the Big Old Maple outside his house, Solomon, a young Tsimpshian boy, is devastated. Through the healing process of making a mask from its wood, he learns that the cycle of life continues.
 

2003

Dragonfly Kites written by Tomson Highway, illustrated by Brian Deines, and published by HarperCollins Canada, 2002.

This bilingual story is Book 2 of the Songs of the North Wind trilogy. During the summer months in northern Manitoba, Cree brothers Joe and Cody devise games from the natural world around them, including flying dragonfly kites that inspire the boys to dream of flying off into the northern sunset. Text is in English and Cree.

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