Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are Indigenous children taken away from their parents, and forced into an isolated residential school on the coast of British Columbia in the late 1960s. Not surprisingly I loved it, but I can’t say I was shocked by any of its contents, as someone who has been reading Indigenous literature for years, it included things I’ve been well aware of for over a decade. Not only that, my followers on social media have insisted this book is a must-read, so I finally purchased a copy a few weeks ago and read it over the course of three days. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good has been nominated or won virtually every Canadian literary award possible, and just last week won the the Canada Reads competition. But every so often I break out of this pattern and pick up a classic book that I’ve been dying to read, or in this case, a book that’s won so many awards, it feels simply wrong to have not read it by now. I won’t say my reading is influenced by awards, because it rarely is – quite often, my book choices depend on the themes I’ve come up with for my monthly radio segment, and the books that land on my doorstep for review.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |