English / Canada
A stranger at home. A true story
Jordan-Fenton, Christy
(text)
Pokiak-Fenton, Margaret
(text)
Amini-Holmes, Liz
(illus.)
Toronto [et al.]: Annick Press, 2011. – 124 p.
ISBN 978-155451-361-1
Inuit | Residential school | Family | Alienation | Biography
Reading age: 9+
White Ravens issue: 2012
In this sequel to the moving memoir “Fatty Legs” (2010), ten-year-old Ouleman returns to her Arctic home after two years of catholic residential school where she was baptised Margaret. Instead of finding a warm welcome, she is met with alienation. “Not my girl!” her mother exclaims, and her beloved sled dogs growl at her. The Inuit girl realises that she has forgotten her people’s language and cannot stomach the food her mother cooks. She has become an “outsider”. The only good thing she has brought back from school is the skill of reading. Margaret not only finds solitary solace in her books, she also reads to her family and secretly teaches her mother to write. Gradually, she emerges from this painful coming of age as a strong young woman. A compelling biography about a clash of cultures.