Stolen Words

A young First Nations girl who is walking home from school with her grandfather innocently asks him how to say “grandfather” in Cree. Grandfather explains that as a child he was taken from his home and placed in a residential school where he was forced to give up his language. The next day the little girl gives her grandfather a gift – a book titled Introduction to Cree – which brings back memories for grandfather who undertakes to share his language with her. The gentle, poetic text and vibrant images convey curiosity, sadness, despair, love, hope, and healing, and present the complex topics of residential schools and loss of language and culture in a way appropriate for young children.