When We Were Alone

February 1, 2017

K-Gr 3-A young girl learns about family and heritage in this gentle picture book about the legacy of Native American boarding schools. Working in the garden with her grandmother, a pigtailed girl asks why her "Nokom" wears colorful clothing and her hair in a long braid. Her grandmother explains that as a child, she was sent far away from her family to a school where she was forced to wear plain clothing and chop off her hair. "They wanted us to be like everyone else," she explains. But when they were alone, the children would cover themselves in the fall leaves and braid grasses into their hair in order to recapture the identities they left behind. As her grandmother speaks Cree to a passing bird and sits laughing with her brother, she shares how it feels to be forbidden to speak the only language you know and how stolen moments with a sibling can feel like a lifeline to home. "Now, I am always with my family," the grandmother says. Flett's spring palette of warm blues and browns punctuated with splashes of red contrasts the loving moments between grandmother and granddaughter with stark winter whites and grays depicting boarding school life. The repetitive structure creates a predictable narrative; together the illustrations and Robertson's child-centered text make the boarding school experience accessible to a young audience without glossing over its harshness.

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016
In this illustrated book for children ages 4 to 8, a curious girl learns about how her grandmother held on to cultural touchstones when she was a child at a Native American residential school. The young girl who narrates this book notices one day, while helping her grandmother in the garden, that her Nokom (Cree for "grandmother") always does certain things. She dons colorful clothes; wears her hair long; speaks in Cree; and spends time with her brother, talking and laughing. But why? The book explains in the rhythm of a poem or song, repeating the structure of question and answer. For example, the girl asks, "Nokom, why do you wear so many colours?" and the grandmother replies, "Well, Nosisim..." and begins her story. She explains that as a girl, she once liked to wear many colors, but at her far-away school, all the children were dressed the same. Why? " 'They didn't like that we wore such beautiful colours, ' Nokom said. 'They wanted us to look like everybody else.' " But in autumn, the girls would pile kaleidoscopic fallen leaves on themselves and found happiness that way. Now, Nokom always wears the most beautiful hues. Similar explanations follow: the school cut the girls' hair, wouldn't let them speak Cree, and separated family members, all to enforce conformity. Today, though, Nokom can flaunt her culture openly. Robertson (The Chief: Mistahimaskwa, 2016, etc.) 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 (We Sang You Home, 2016, etc.) gorgeous, skillful illustrations have a flattened, faux naive 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 Nokom and gets much expression from her simple silhouettes. Spare, poetic, and moving, this Cree heritage story makes a powerful impression.

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Starred review from March 15, 2017
Grades K-3 *Starred Review* A young girl helping her grandmother in the garden asks Nokum a series of questions: Why do you wear so many colors? Why do you wear your hair so long? Why do you speak in Cree? Why do you and Nokomis always spend time together? The answers relate to the years Nokum spent in residential school as a child, where she was instructed to wear a drab uniform, compelled to cut her hair short, forced to speak only English, and forbidden from spending time with family. As an adult, she remembers these injustices, but she chooses to respond in positive ways, enjoying beautiful colors, wearing her hair long, speaking her native language, and spending time with her brother. Robertson's succinct yet lyrical prose evokes the not-so-distant past when indigenous Canadian (and American) children were removed from their families and placed in boarding schools whose main goal was to eradicate their Native cultural ways. Flett's mixed-media collage artwork echoes Robertson's forthright text as she alternates between colorful contemporary spreads and more muted residential school scenes. Each spread is compelling in its own way, offering remarkable depictions of resilience and the strong emotional ties within this family. An empowering and important story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)