Residential School Book For Kids Wins Major Prize

Residential School Book For Kids Wins Major Prize

Friday, November 20, 2009 at 12:01

A children’s book about the challenges Aboriginal children faced in the residential school system won one of the largest prizes for children’s literature in the country.

Author Nicola Campbell and illustrator Kim LaFave are this year’s recipients of the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award for their book, Shin-chi’s Canoe.

The two will split the $25,000 award.

Shin-chi’s Canoe is the story of Shin-chi, a six-year old Native boy who leaves home with his sister to enter a residential school, where he must give up his language.

When the boy returns home, he finds his father carving a dugout canoe for him and his sister, just as he promised he would when the children left for residential school.