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The Secret Pocket
CCBC Review:
“I was always hungry and cold at Lejac. … Soup at lunch was a different color depending on the season. Gray soup in wintertime and colorful soup in the fall.” This moving account of a young Dakelh girl in western Canada forced to leave her home to live at a church-run residential school for much of the year is imbued with marvelous details and remarkable balance as it describes both hardship and resilience. Told in the voice of an older woman looking back on her childhood, her memories are of sadness and loss but also moments of humor (discovering nuns go the bathroom!), ingenuity (she and her friends sewed secret pockets inside their petticoats to hide food), and joy. Nothing was more joyful than the arrival of her grandfather’s sleigh to take them home at winter break, and the renewing months of summer among family. “Now … I look back at this time and see what sweet little geniuses we were. … We sewed our survival into every stitch. We were geniuses. We are geniuses. We will always be geniuses.” Heartrending and heartening, this stirring picture book features illustrations with a somber palette that brightens, and sober expressions that lighten, when setting and thoughts shift to home. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Carrielynn Victor
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 6-9
Age Range:
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Dakelh People
First/Native Nations
Memory
Oppression
Racism
Resiliency
School
Separation
Diversity subject:
Indigenous
On CCBC Booklists:
Picture Books for Older Children and Teens: Never Too Old
School Stories: Selected PreK-12 Literature about the School Experience
Publisher:
Orca
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 30
ISBN: 9781459833722
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Janicki