This is a history lesson, most people in the North American continent need. This is based on the true story of the author’s grandmother, who unfortunately had to live through the residential schools in Canada. The story is told of her being cold and hungry and abused, and how these little girls were ingenious and sewed secret pockets and stole away in the middle of the night to the kitchen to steal food to feed themselves and their friends, because the priests and nuns were not sharing. This is a part of American and Canadian history that has not been taught and it has only been with the recent findings of mass graves that the schools have hit the news and people have started to learn what happened. It’s stories like this that tell why these events are important, not just now, but into our future as we watch our modern society once again, trying to “other” different groups of people into nothingness. ( )

It is heartbreaking to know of all the children treated with cruelty at Indian boarding schools. ( )

True story!

A tale that tugs, confronts and horrifies. The Residential Schools are a byword for all that’s wrong with what happened to First Nations people’s in Canada. (This story is universal in its scope of what happened historically to First Nations people’s throughout the new world)
The lengths the children had to go to to survive is a stain on any nation’s soul.
To my mind the tale has a First Nations storyteller’s lyrical cadence. The illustrations match the voice.
I was not aware that some children were able to go home. Interesting to note that “home” was always in different colors to those used for the school experience.
The ingenuity of the girls sewing their pockets gave hope to their small community. The fact that they had to go to these lengths speaks louder than words as to the treatment they were receiving.
So many talking points to open up discussions of the past, present and future for First Nations Peoples. I struggle to make an adequate response in the face of so simply yet baldly presented facts. The storyteller’s voice adds weight, simply and straightforwardly spoken.
The author and illustrator are of First Nations heritage and bring an authoritative tone, and a living knowledge to this work.
Suitable for young children.

An Orca ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. ( )

The Secret Pocket is a true story told to the author by her mother about her time in an indigenous residential school in Canada. At the time, the Canadian government placed indigenous children in residential schools funded by the government and run by churches. The children were torn from their families and taken far away to the often brutal residential schools. The purpose was to isolate them from their culture and assimilate them into the ways and religion of the dominant Canadian culture. They were forbidden to speak their native language or behave in any of the ways they had been brought up, with severe punishments for disobedience.
Mary was just 4 years old when she was taken to a school far away from her family. She was not yet old enough for kindergarten so she wandered the halls while the other children were in class. When she was older, she and her friends used the sewing skills they had been taught by their mothers and grandmothers to sew pockets in their petticoats. They used these pockets to smuggle extra food, particularly to share with younger girls, to supplement the less than adequate meals they were provided. The lore of their indigenous people helped them to survive the harsh assimilation imposed on them - a wonderful turnabout of the attempt to separate them from their culture.
The illustrations are sparing but nicely done, with much more color and love in the pictures of home than of the school - very indicative of the story.
A beautiful afternote to this story is that the story has been placed in specially sewn pockets in the graduation robes of indigenous graduates of University of Fraser Valley, Chilliwack Senior Secondary School and Mission School DIstrict.
Thank you to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for the ARC of this educational book. ( )