Additional information
by Monique Gray Smith (Author), Karlene Harvey (Illustrator)
When Charlie's Kohkom asks him what the best part of his school day was, he knows right away: Indigenous drum circle!
Kohkom tells him that not very long ago she was gifted her very first drum at a ceremony for children who never returned home from residential schools. But Charlie doesn't understand. How could she only have gotten her first drum so recently?
Kohkom explains that she was taken from her family when she was very little because of something called the Sixties Scoop. She was raised by an adoptive white family and only later learned what being Cree meant. It's taken her a long time to feel like she belongs. Kohkom's story gives Charlie the idea to teach her a song so they can play their drums together.
Praise for Monique Gray Smith:
★"Joyful and tender...celebrates the activities that bring gladness through family and cultural connections."--School Library Journal, starred review for My Heart Fills With Happiness
★"Smith tackles difficult and complex conversations with straightforwardness and compassion."--School Library Journal, starred review for Speaking Our Truth
"Gentle...Notably centering Indigenous families and characters of color in personal and communal activities--and encouraging readers to evaluate their actions toward others."--Publishers Weekly for When We Are Kind
"Smith's text is heartwarming!"--Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature for You Hold Me Up
Author Biography
Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, bestselling author and public speaker. Her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics and emotions. Woven into all of Monique's writing and her speaking engagements is the teaching that Love is Medicine. Her books include Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, My Heart Fills With Happiness, You Hold Me Up, Lucy and Lola, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, Tilly and the Crazy Eights, When We Are Kind, I Hope and Dreaming Alongside. She has also created the young adult adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Monique is Cree and Scottish. She lives with her family on the Traditional Territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ Peoples.
Karlene Harvey is Tsilhqot'in and Syilx and currently lives on the unceded and ancestral home territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. They studied at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, earning a BFA in visual arts. When they are not making art, Karlene enjoys exploring rocky West Coast beaches with their daughter, learning their Tsilhqot'in language and spending time in their garden.
