A Stranger At Home: A True Story

by Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, Liz Amini-Holmes (Illustrator)

Overview

Margaret can’t wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected.

Traveling to be reunited with her family in the arctic, 10-year-old Margaret Pokiak can hardly contain her excitement. It’s been two years since her parents delivered her to the school run by the dark-cloaked nuns and brothers.

Coming ashore, Margaret spots her family, but her mother barely recognizes her, screaming, “Not my girl.” Margaret realizes she is now marked as an outsider.

And Margaret is an outsider: she has forgotten the language and stories of her people, and she can’t even stomach the food her mother prepares.

However, Margaret gradually relearns her language and her family’s way of living. Along the way, she discovers how important it is to remain true to the ways of her people—and to herself.

Highlighted by archival photos and striking artwork, this first-person account of a young girl’s struggle to find her place will inspire young readers to ask what it means to belong.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554515936
Publisher:	Annick Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Christy Jordan-Fenton is the author of Fatty Legs, which was named a 2011 USBBY Outstanding International Honor Book. She lives in Fort St. John, British Columbia.
Margaret Pokiak-Fenton spent her early years on Banks Island in the Arctic Ocean. She now lives in Fort St. John, British Columbia.

Liz Amini-Holmes lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and ever-growing menagerie of pets. When Liz is not illustrating, she is working on a Masters in Art Therapy, teaching, and obsessively reading and watching detective stories.

Editorial Reviews

This book realistically portrays the impact of residential school life on Aboriginal children.

Resource Links - Myra Junyk

Without being graphic or overwhelming, the Fentons recreate a tragic moment in Canadian history through the innocent reflections of a child...a must for any classroom library.

Canadian Teacher Magazine

A Stranger at Home will speak to anyone who has experienced displacement or assimilation into a new culture. This fabulous story enhances the Grades 6 to 8 social studies curriculum.

Professionally Speaking (Ontario College of Teache

This memoir, detailing a woeful piece of Canadian history and demonstrating Margaret's strength of character, compassion, courage and her willingness to sacrifice herself for her family's sake, gives the reader a lot to ponder. Highly recommended.

Canadian Materials - Shelbey Krahn

This is a book everyone should read.

edwardsmagazinebookclub.com - Betty Gelean

This book realistically portrays the impact of residential school life on Aboriginal children.

— Myra Junyk

Resource Links

This is a book everyone should read.

— Betty Gelean

edwardsmagazinebookclub.com

After two years in Catholic residential school, 10-year-old Olemaun returns to Tuktoyaktuk on Canada's Arctic coast, a stranger to her friends and family, unaccustomed to the food and clothing and unable to speak or understand her native language. Margaret Pokiak's story continues after the events of Fatty Legs (2010), which described her boarding-school experience. In this stand-alone sequel, she describes a year of reintegration into her Inuvialuit world. At first, her mother doesn't even recognize her: "Not my girl," she says. Amini-Holmes illustrates this scene and others with full-page paintings in somber colors. The sad faces echo the child's misery. Gradually, though, with the help of her understanding father, she readjusts--even learning to drive a dog team. She contrasts her experience with that of the man the villagers call Du-bil-ak, the devil, a dark-skinned trapper no one speaks to. She has a home she can get used to again; he would always be alien. The first-person narrative is filled with details of this Inuit family's adjustment to a new way of life in which books and reading matter as much as traditional skills. A scrapbook of photographs at the end helps readers enter this unfamiliar world, as do the occasional notes and afterword. Olemaun's spirit and determination shine through this moving memoir. (Memoir. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews