Desperate to learn to read, 8-year-old Olemaun badgers her father to let her leave her island home to go to the residential school for Inuit children in Aklavik, in Canada's far north. There she encounters a particularly mean nun who renames her Margaret but cannot "educate" her into submission. The determination and underlying positive nature of this Inuvialuit child shine through the first-person narration that describes her first two years in boarding school, where their regular chores include emptying "honey buckets." The torments of the nun she calls "Raven" are unrelenting, culminating in her assignment to wear a used pair of ill-fitting red stockings—giving her the mocking name found in the title. The "Margaret" of the story is co-author, along with her daughter-in-law. Opening with a map, the book closes with a photo album, images from her childhood and from archives showing Inuit life at the time. The beautiful design includes thumbnails of these pictures at the appropriate places in the text and Amini-Holmes' slightly surreal paintings, which capture the alien flavor of these schools for their students. A moving and believable account. (Memoir. 8-12)

 

Gr 4–8—This is a powerful and moving autobiographical account, set in the 1940s, of one headstrong girl from an Inuvialuit community in the Arctic Circle. Margaret desperately wished to attend one of the church-run schools that had been established in a town that was accessible only in the summer months. Her desire to learn the magic of reading was greater than her fear of the unknown or leaving her family and familiar way of life, and so her parents reluctantly agreed to allow her to attend for a year, which unexpectedly turned into two. At the school she was stripped of her Native identity and forced to conform in thought and comportment to the ways of the nuns and priests that ran the school. Hard labor in the gardens, laundry, cleaning, and helping in the local hospital all took their toll, but young Margaret was stubborn and clever, managing to find ways to stay strong and true to herself. Dark, expressive original paintings are dotted throughout the story and complement the serious tone of the narrative. The book closes with 15 pages of photographs from Pokiak-Fenton's scrapbook. Readers are also granted a glimpse into the way of life of the Inuvialuit, a culture with close ties to the land and rich in tradition. Youngsters will identify with Margaret's struggles and cheer her successes. An excellent addition to any biography collection, the book is fascinating and unique, and yet universal in its message.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA