Saturday, 22 February 2020

Sugar Falls: A Residential School Story By: David A. Robertson

Genre:  Historical Fiction/Graphic Novel
Age Recommendation:  Grade 7/8

Sugar Falls is based on the residential school experience of Betty Ross, an Elder from Cross Lake First Nation.  When Betty was just five years old, she was abandoned by her mother.  Her mother had attended residential school and the scars from this experience made it difficult for her to parent Betty.  Fortunately, Betty was taken in by a caring family.  Betty's adoptive father knew that she would have to go to residential school and tried to prepare her for this by giving her ways to deal with the darkness the school would impose.  Betty's experience at school was terrible, but thanks to her father, she was able to find inner strength.  The illustrations in this graphic novel are powerful and the graphic format makes the residential school experience accessible to a variety of readers.  I highly recommend this book.



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