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Readings for Students

This section focuses on unique books/stories for students sorted by subject area. 

Social Studies

This Place

(Story for All Grades)

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This graphic novel examines 150 years of Canadian history since confederation in 1867 from the perspective of Indigenous Canadians. Different stories from the novel can be incorporated into a variety of different grades depending on what the students are studying in social studies.

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14 Inspiring Children's Books from Indigenous Writers

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See highlights below in Primary and Middle School, or "click here" for the article.​

Social Studies

Primary School

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Nokum is my Teacher

(David Bouchard)

  • Award winning Metis author and poet

  • Illustrated by Cree elder

  • Young indigenous boy asked his grandmother (Nokum) about world outside their community

  • Nokum teaches him about appreciation for their traditions and understanding how to fit into life off the reserve while still respecting the ways of his people

 

Shi-shi-etko

(Nicola I. Campbell)

  • A young girl who is about to go to residential school

  • Before she goes she “soaks in the natural wonders of the world around her”

  • Learns valuable lessons of wisdom

  • Would be good to use before talking about residential schools

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Middle School

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Fatty Legs

(Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak Fenton)

  • Young girl living in arctic wants to learn to read so she makes the journey to residential school in the south despite her father’s warnings about residential schools

  • Meets the raven in form of a nun who makes her wear red stocking when the rest of the girls wear grey→ everyone makes fun of her

  • She must teach the Raven a lesson in human dignity

 

Speaking our Truth

(Monique Gray Smith)

  • Non-fiction

  • Author is Cree, Lakota and Scottish

  • Young persons’ guide to colonialism, reconciliation and allyship

  • Help young people understand residential schools and their lasting effects→ uses age accessible language
     

The Orange Shirt Story

(Phyllis Webstad)

  • Story behind orange shirt day

  • Her experience of her brand new orange shirt being taken away on her first day at a residential school

  • About being deprived of her sense of identity at such a young age

  • Would be really good to read on or before orange shirt day

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Secondary School

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They Called Me Number One

(Bev Sellars)

  • A former councillor and chief of the Xat'sull (Soda Creek) First Nation in Williams Lake, British Columbia

  • This story describes her experiences within the Canadian Residential School System

 

UNeducation, Vol 1: A Residential School Graphic Novel

(Jason Eaglespeaker)

  • "The chilling chronicles of a Native family's government-sanctioned exploitation in the North American residential/boarding school systems."

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Math

Stories from the Math Catcher

(Grades K-9)

Math

Science

Creation Legends

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The following link will provide you with access to both an audio recording and PDF document of the creation stories from various Indigenous groups. The indigenous groups creation stories included in the following link are:  

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  • Mi’kmaq 

  • Piikani 

  • Inuit 

  • Gwi’chin 

  • Anishinabe (Algonquin)

  • Haida

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Ojbwe Creation Story​

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The following link contains the Ojbwe Creation Story.​

Stories About Water

 

The Water Walker

(Joanne Robertson - Anishnabe author)

  • Illustrated by Joanne as well

  • Author is a water protection activist

  • Girl walks to protect water (nibi) for future generations

  • Includes Ojibway vocabulary and pronunciation

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Stories About the Land

 

The Giving Tree 

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A walk in the Tundra 

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Berries

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Stories About Innovation

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The Inuit Thought of It -- Amazing Arctic Innovations

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Buffalo

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Stories About Animals


Life Cycle of a Salmon


13 Moons on turtle's back 


Muskrat will be swimming

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Science

ELA

For Grades 1-3

ELA

​The Moccasins

(Earl Einarson) 

  • About an Indigenous boy given moccasins by adoptive mother

  • About self-esteem, love and acceptance

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Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox 

(Danielle Daniel)

  • Poems

  • Explains the idea of identifying with a chosen animal

  • Introduction to totem animals

  • “also describes how totem animals can act as guides for people seeking to understand themselves and their place in the world better."

A Promise is a Promise

(Robert Munsch & Michael Kusugak)

  • Based on traditional story told to children in Inuit communities to protect them from harm→ creature under the ice called Qallupilluit

  • Brings arctic life to readers

 

The Water Walker

(Joanne Robertson - Anishnabe author)

  • Illustrated by Joanne as well

  • Author is a water protection activist

  • Girl walks to protect water (nibi) for future generations

  • Includes Ojibway vocabulary and pronunciation


​Little You

(Richard Van Camp; illustrated by Julie Flett)

  • “Celebrates the strength and vulnerability of being small”

  • Talks about power of being surrounded by family from a young age

  • Importance of growing up knowing you are lived unconditionally

​How Raven Stole the Sun

(Maria Williams)

  • Retelling of Tlinglit story 

  • Shape shifting raven who frees the humans from darkness

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Coyote Tales

(Thomas King)

  • Tells two fables about the trickster Coyote (a traditional story)

  • Has to get moon back into sky after he insults it and the world is in darkness

  • He goes around stealing the suits of other animals because Raven tells him that his is not the nicest

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