When We Were Alone bookcover

When We Were Alone

Julie Flett 

(Illustrator)
4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
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Description

Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award!

A young girl notices things about her grandmother that make her curious. Why does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak Cree and spend so much time with her family? As the girl asks questions, her grandmother shares her experiences in a residential school, when all of these things were taken away.

Also available in a bilingual Swampy Cree/English edition. Download the free teacher guide on the Portage & Main Press website.

Product Details

PublisherHighwater Press
Publish DateDecember 01, 2016
Pages32
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9781553796732
Dimensions8.3 X 7.4 X 0.4 inches | 0.6 pounds

About the Author

David A. Robertson (he/him/his) is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, has won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, as well as the Writer's Union of Canada Freedom to Read award. He has received several other accolades for his work as a writer for children and adults, podcaster, public speaker, and social advocate. He was honoured with a Doctor of Letters by the University of Manitoba for outstanding contributions in the arts and distinguished achievements in 2023. He is a member of Norway House Cree Nation and lives in Winnipeg.

Julie Flett is a Swampy Cree and Red River Métis author, illustrator and artist. She has received numerous awards for her picture books, including the Governor General's Award for When We Were Alone and On The Trapline (written by David A. Robertson), the American Indian Library Association Award for Little You (written by Richard Van Camp) and a BolognaRagazzi Award special mention for We Sang You Home (also written by Richard Van Camp). She is the three-time recipient of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Award. Her picture book Birdsong was awarded the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for 2020 and Wild Berries was chosen as Canada's First Nation Communities Read title selection for 2014-2015.

Reviews

A quiet story...of love and resistance.... Flett's collage illustrations, with their simplicity and earthy colors, are soulful and gentle.... All readers will connect with how Nókom lives in celebration of colors, her long hair, her language, and, most of all, her family.--a starred review "The Horn Book Magazine"
Robertson's soft rhythmic text and Julie Flett's simple, yet expressive, illustrations combine to create a beautiful story of strength and resistance. The muted colours used in the pictures of residential school life remind readers of the suffering endured by Indigenous children. The contrast between these pages, and the vibrant greens, reds, and blues of the illustrations depicting residential school students temporarily escaping into nature, is heartbreakingly effective. Robertson never tries to disguise the underlying tragedy of Nókom's experience, but together he and Flett have crafted a book that is still suitable for younger readers, in spite of the intense subject matter.

When We Were Alone is an incredible work of art and is very highly recommended.

--Roseanne Gauthier "National Reading Campaign"
Robertson's text moves between the present and the past, the girl's questions and Nókom's memories, which deepen and intensify the quiet, powerful way she lives out her own culture, day by day, in the present. A beautifully rendered story of resisitance and love, this is made all the more luminous by Flett's art - not just by flashes of fuschsia or scarlet among ochre grasses, but by her precisely observed images of the compact bodies of the uniformed children, bowed beneath the weight of the scissors, or lovingly tending each other's hair. Highly recommended.--Deirdre Baker "Toronto Star"

...Robertson handles a delicate task here admirably well: explaining residential schools, that shameful legacy, and making them understandable to small children. It's a dark history, and the author doesn't disguise that, but he wisely focuses the grandmother's tale on how, season by season, the students use creativity, imagination, and patience to retain their sense of identity. A beautifully quiet, bold strength arises from the continued refrain "When we were alone" and in how the children insisted on being themselves. Flett's gorgeous, skillful illustrations have a flattened, faux naïve feel to them, like construction paper collage, a style that works perfectly with the story. She nicely contrasts the school's dull browns and grays with the riotous colors surrounding Nókom and gets much expression from her simple silhouettes.

Spare, poetic, and moving, this Cree heritage story makes a powerful impression.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"
When We Were Alone is rare. It is exquisite and stunning, for the power conveyed by the words Robertson wrote, and for the illustrations that Flett created. I highly recommend it.--Debbie Reese "American Indians in Children's Literature"

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