Winner of the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award and finalist for the Governor General's Award: Children's Illustration

This moving sequel to the award-winning Shi-shi-etko tells the story of two children's experience at residential school. Shi-shi-etko is about to return for her second year, but this time her six-year-old brother, Shin-chi, is going, too.

As they begin their journey in the back of a cattle truck, Shi-shi-etko tells her brother all the things he must remember: the trees, the mountains, the rivers and the salmon. Shin-chi knows he won't see his family again until the sockeye salmon return in the summertime. When they arrive at school, Shi-shi-etko gives him a tiny cedar canoe, a gift from their father.

The children's time is filled with going to mass, school for half the day, and work the other half. The girls cook, clean and sew, while the boys work in the fields, in the woodshop and at the forge. Shin-chi is forever hungry and lonely, but, finally, the salmon swim up the river and the children return home for a joyful family reunion.

Nicola Campbell is Interior Salish and Métis author who lives in British Columbia. She has a BFA and a MFA in creative writing, and is currently working towards a doctoral degree focusing on contemporary Indigenous Storytelling at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna, BC. Her first free-verse children book "Shi-shi-etko" was published in September 2005 and was a finalist for the 2006 Ruth Schwartz Children Book Award, the 2006 TD Canadian Children Literature Award and the 2006 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. Her second free-verse picture book "Shin-chi's Canoe" won the 2009 TD Canadian Children Literature Award and was a finalist for the 2009 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and a 2008 Governor General Award for illustration. She believes it is time for Indigenous stories to focus on empowerment, rather than tragedy.

Nicola Campbell's profile page

Kim LaFave is a prolific picture book artist with many titles to his name, including Amos's Sweater, Ben Over Night, and Big Ben, which earned him the Mr. Christie's Book Award Silver Seal. He has also won the Governor General's Award, the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award, and the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award. Kim lives on the west coast of Canada, in Robert's Creek, British Columbia.

Kim LaFave's profile page

• Winner, TD Canadian Children's Literature Award
• Long-listed, OLA Silver Birch Express
• Short-listed, Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (CCBC)
• Short-listed, Chocolate Lily Award - Picture Book
• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Awards: Illustration

Kim LaFave's illustrations for this book are...bold and beautiful...an evocative accompaniment to a powerful text.

Globe and Mail

This book is an important addition to this literature with its intertwining of historical fact with an engaging narrative and evocative illustrations.

CM Magazine

LaFave's striking yet soft digital illustrations are appropriately somber and deftly capture the mood with subtle earth tones on each page...This realistic, tender story [is] an accessible and important contribution to Native literature.

School Library Journal

LaFave's digitally colored pencil sketches contrast the austerity of boarding-school life with the natural beauty of the children's home.

Book Links