"Pokiak-Fenton told the students she'd actually begged to go to residential school because she wanted to learn to read.
Despite her father's opposition, she finally convinced him to send her to school far from their high Arctic trapping and hunting grounds on Banks Island, N.W.T.
Within two days of arriving, Pokiak-Fenton told them she was desperate to return home.
But she didn't see her parents again for two years."
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/exploring-the-link-between-education-and-reconciliation-1.3742630/residential-school-memoir-set-to-become-new-canadian-children-s-classic-1.3744495?cmp=abfb
"An Inuk grandmother's life has inspired a best-selling series of books about residential school so popular, they're set to become Canadian children's classic.
Fatty Legs, the first of four non-fiction picture books, is still making booksellers' top 10 lists, even six years after it was published by Annick Press.
The book has sold 50,000 copies, a very large number for a children's book.
The unflinching residential school memoir was the fifth best selling children's book in Canada in May, right behind The Paper Bag Princess."
Find it on Amazon
The moving memoir of an Inuit girl who emerges from a residential school with her spirit intact.
Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential schools.
At school Margaret soon encounters the Raven, a black-cloaked nun with a hooked nose and bony fingers that resemble claws. She immediately dislikes the strong-willed young Margaret. Intending to humiliate her, the heartless Raven gives gray stockings to all the girls -- all except Margaret, who gets red ones. In an instant Margaret is the laughingstock of the entire school.
In the face of such cruelty, Margaret refuses to be intimidated and bravely gets rid of the stockings. Although a sympathetic nun stands up for Margaret, in the end it is this brave young girl who gives the Raven a lesson in the power of human dignity.
Complemented by archival photos from Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's collection and striking artwork from Liz Amini-Holmes, this inspiring first-person account of a plucky girl's determination to confront her tormentor will linger with young readers
https://www.amazon.ca/Fatty-Legs-Christy-Jordan-Fenton/dp/1554512468
