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Features Overview
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When We Are Kind
When We Are Kind celebrates simple acts of everyday kindness and encourages children to explore how they feel when they initiate and receive acts of kindness in their lives.
Celebrated author Monique Gray Smith has written many books on the topics of resilience and reconciliation and communicates an important message through carefully chosen words for readers of all ages. Beautifully illustrated by artist Nicole Neidhardt, this book encourages children to be kind to others and to themselves.
Tilly and the Crazy Eights
An unexpected journey can be powerful medicine.
When Tilly receives an invitation to help drive eight elders on their ultimate bucket list road trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow, she impulsively says yes. Before she knows it, Tilly has said goodbye to her family and is behind the wheel—ready to embark on an adventure that will transform her in ways she could not predict, just as it will for each and every one of the seniors on the trip, who soon dub themselves “the Crazy Eights.”
Tilly and the Crazy Eights each choose a stop to make along the way—somewhere they’ve always wanted to go or something they’ve wanted to experience. This takes them on a route to Las Vegas and Sedona, with a final goal of reaching the Redwood Forest. Each stop becomes the inspiration for secrets and stories to be revealed. The trip proves to be powerful medicine as they laugh, heal, argue, and reveal hopes and dreams along the way. With friendships forged, love found, hearts broken and mended, Tilly and the Crazy Eights feel ready for anything by the time their bus rolls to a stop in New Mexico. But are they?
Awards
Winner of the PMC Indigenous Literature Award
Media
Quill & Quire
CBC
The Star
In French on Radio-Canada’s Espaces Autochtones (18:05)
In English on Eye on the Arctic
In English on Radio Canada International’s English service
Now available on Audible. Download audio at the link below.
For paperback and kindle, order at the link below.
Lucy & Lola
The Journey Forward, A Novella On Reconciliation
Lucy and Lola are 11-year-old twins who are heading to Gabriola Island, BC, to spend the summer with their Kookum (grandmother) while their mother studies for the bar exam. During their time with Kookum, the girls begin to learn about her experiences in being sent — and having to send their mother — to Residential school. Ultimately, they discover what it means to be intergenerational survivors.
Award-winning illustrator Julie Flett created the amazing cover illustration and interior spot art that perfectly suit this engaging novella.
Lucy & Lola is a 2018 CODE Burt Award Honour Book for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Young Adult Literature. and is a finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Award for Children’s Literature as part of the BC Book Awards.
Awards
Speaking Our Truth
A Journey of Reconciliation
Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the Residential School system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by Survivors and their families. Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action.
Awards
Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation: 1 of 5 finalist for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. Winner announced Oct 29 at Gala in Toronto, ON with Shelagh Rogers as the hostess.
Speaking our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation a finalist for the Victoria Book Prizes Bolen Books Children’s Book Award.
Winner announced October 17, 2018.
Watch the CTV Van Island interview re: TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award Finalist
Watch Monique Speak about Speaking Our Truth on YouTube
You Hold Me Up
This vibrant picture book, beautifully illustrated by celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, encourages children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions.
Consultant, international speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote You Hold Me Up to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with their friends, classmates and families. This is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens.
Awards
You Hold Me Up: Finalist for the National Picture Book award, the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award.
Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience
Tilly won the 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, it is a Canadian bestseller and is used in both high school and college courses to explore history and resilience through story.
Loosely based on author Monique Gray Smith’s own life, this revealing, important work of creative non-fiction tells the story of a young Indigenous woman coming of age in Canada in the 1980s. With compassion, insight and humour, Gray Smith illuminates the 20th-century history of Canada’s First Peoples—forced displacement, residential schools, tuberculosis hospitals, the Sixties Scoop. In a spirit of hope, this unique story captures the irrepressible resilience of Tilly, and of Indigenous peoples everywhere.
Tilly is available at independent bookstores across Canada, and on line from Sononis Press or from Amazon. Also available as an ebook on Amazon.
Awards: 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature
Monique Gray Smith Wins 2014 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature First Prize. Shelagh Rogers and Wab Kinew co-hosted the Winnipeg 2014 gala for CODE’s Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature, recognizing outstanding literary works for young adults written by First Nations, Métis and Inuit authors. Monique Gray Smith is awarded first prize Tilly, a Story of Hope and Resilience (published by Sono Nis Press). Learn More
Hear Monique talk about Tilly on Youtube.
Watch The Book Teaser
Hear a reader talk about impact of reading Tilly.
My Heart Fills with Happiness
Illustrated by award winning Cree/Metis illustrator, Julie Flett and Published by Orca Books.
The sun on your face. The smell of warm bannock baking in the oven. Holding the hand of someone you love. What fills your heart with happiness? This beautiful board book, with illustrations from celebrated artist Julie Flett, serves as a reminder for little ones and adults alike to reflect on and cherish the moments in life that bring us joy. International speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote My Heart Fills with Happiness to support the wellness of Indigenous children and families, and to encourage young children to reflect on what makes them happy.
Awards & News
BC Book Prize Finalist for 2017
“A quiet loveliness, sense of gratitude, and—yes—happiness emanate from this tender celebration of simple pleasures, which features a cast of First Nations children and adults; Smith dedicates the book, in part, “to the former Indian Residential School students and their families.” Short, first-person phrases (“My heart fills with happiness when… I see the face of someone I love”) revel in both solitary and familial activities, building to a direct address to readers: “What fills your heart with happiness?” Flett’s (Little You) crisp-edged paintings blend universal and culturally specific experiences—three children cluster around the oven as bannock bakes, while another boy spots a frog as he walks barefoot through the grass. Up to age 5. (Feb.)” – The Publisher’s Weekly Review
Ripple Effect of Resiliency: Strategies for Fostering Resiliency with Indigenous Children
A resource and workbook for those working with Indigenous children and families.
It includes chapters on: Resiliency - Trauma - Indigenous history - Personal and workplace wellness. The next four chapters include information, stories and examples for fostering resiliency. They have been developed as four blankets and include: Sense of self - Sense of family - Sense of community - Sense of culture, language and land. Also included is an extensive resource chapter.
Order here for $39.99