Shi-shi-etko Book

So yes and very much really unfortunately, I have read in some reviews of Nicola I. Campbell's 2005 picture book Shi-shi-etko that the author's, that Campbell's featured narrative is supposedly not nearly sufficiently negative and condemning regarding the cultural genocide of the residential school experience for Canada's First Nations, that the author's text should therefore not only be more verbally horrifying but that it should also feature Shi-shi-etko's actual experiences after she arrives at residential school and not just the few days before she is mandated to depart (with no legal way for either students or parents to object to this, and with the First Nations students actually being sent to school in a cattle truck like animals, like livestock, and which is indeed really rather majorly chilling in and of itself but also very subtly and not too obviously depicted).

But honestly and of course also in my own personal and humble opinion, the gentle nature of Nicola I. Campbell's words, of Shi-shi-etko saying her descriptive, beautiful and heartfelt goodbyes to everything and everyone familiar to her and making essential and fond memories to take internally along in her heart to make her, to render Shi-shi-etko's time at residential school less traumatic and thus more bearable (and knowing full well that residential school will of course be very much different to life at home and not just with regard to Shi-shi-etko probably being homesick), this is indeed totally emotionally powerful and certainly does in every way feature the residential school experience as being something that will obviously be both negative and painful and as such equally not in any manner truly educational and positive for the attending students, leaving Shi-shi-etko as an emotionally poignant introduction to the residential school experience but also without too much horror and terror so as not to overwhelm and unnecessarily frighten the intended audience (younger children from about the age of four to around seven or eight years of age).

And combined with Kim Lafave's luminous and glowing accompanying artwork, which is both colourful and at the same time also rather subdued and totally does visually and aesthetically gloriously mirror Nicola I. Campbell's narrative and as such also our young protagonist's emotions, Shi-shi-etko's feelings, I definitely do find Shi-shi-etko both delightful and emotionally powerful and certainly very much and highly recommended.