Little Shoes

Cree author Robertson reteams with Ojibwe, Yoeme, and Irish artist McKibbin (The Song That Called Them Home) for this work that honors children who did not return from residential schools. Awake on subsequent nights, Indigenous youth James, worried and wondering, heads to his mother’s room by moonlight, where she answers his questions, holds him in her arms, and chats with him about constellations and the universe. An outing with James’s kōkom finds the two at a march, where they encounter a display of empty children’s shoes meant to memorialize those who did not return. As James learns of kōkom’s own time at a residential school, and of her sister who didn’t make it home, he imagines the experience, ponders who comforted those children when they were awake late at night, and pictures them consoling one another and following paths of moonlight. Saturated digital color incorporates streams of light against moody blues, oranges, and purples. James and his mother’s musing on intergenerational story-sharing further contribute to themes of connection and loss in this emotional work. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author’s note concludes. Ages 3–7. (July)