Why read I Am Not a Number?

Book cover of I Am Not a Number

Book description

When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who…

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Historical fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked I Am Not a Number as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Nhung N. Tran-Davies

Author

We as a nation and society are on the road to truth and reconciliation. Critical to that journey are stories such as I Am Not a Number. The book tells the heartbreaking story of Irene, the author’s grandmother, and her brothers who were taken away from their home on Nipissing First Nation to live at a residential school, very far from home. At the school, names are not used. All students are known by numbers. This story will inspire important conversations that will help younger generations understand the horrors so many indigenous children endured in the residential schools. It…

From Nhung's list on to spark conversations between generations.