Mentor Texts

Cloudwalker by Roy Henry Vickers

Cloudwalker tells the story of a young hunter who ties a flock of trumpeter swans together by their feet and is taken by surprise when they draw him up into the clouds. Desperately trying to find his way home, he comes upon a cedar water bucket, which he carries with him on his search, occasionally stumbling and spilling some of its contents. Upon his eventual return to his village, the hunter discovers that the spilled water (or “juice from the clouds”) has formed new lakes and three large rivers – the Skeena, the Nass, and the Stikine. 

Orca Chief by Roy Henry Vickers

Thousands of years ago in the village of Kitkatla, four hunters leave home in the spring to harvest seaweed and sockeye. When they arrive at their fishing grounds, exhaustion makes them lazy and they throw their anchor overboard without care for the damage it might do to marine life or the sea floor.

When Orca Chief discovers what the hunters have done, he sends his most powerful orca warriors to bring the men and their boat to his house. The men beg forgiveness for their ignorance and lack of respect, and Orca Chief compassionately sends them out with his pod to show them how to sustainably harvest the ocean's resources.

Raven Brings the Light by Roy Henry Vickers

In a time when darkness covered the land, a boy named Weget is born who is destined to bring the light. With the gift of a raven's skin that allows him to fly as well as transform, Weget turns into a bird and journeys from Haida Gwaii into the sky. There he finds the Chief of the Heavens who keeps the light in a box. By transforming himself into a pine needle, clever Weget tricks the Chief and escapes with the daylight back down to Earth.

I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer

A true and personal story of Canada's residential school past.

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 tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law?

Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.