Mistasinîy: Buffalo Rubbing Stone

by Mary Harelkin Bishop

fiction
from-the-prairies
illustrated
indigenous

Danny lives on the family farm homesteaded by his great-great-grandparents. When his Grade 6 teacher assigns a Canadian heritage project, Danny finds out about his great-great-grandmother’s journal. She tells of breaking the land and building and living in a sod house. She also tells of how the First Nations people in the area helped her and how she helped them after the buffalo disappeared and food became scarce. At school, Danny has been able to avoid close contact with the troublesome Zach, until now. The more Danny digs into his family’s history, the more he realizes that his and Zach’s pasts are complicated and connected.

Contributors

Mary Harelkin Bishop, author

Mary Harelkin Bishop has been a writer since she was nine years old. She is the author of the best-selling Tunnels of Moose Jaw books, the award-winning Seeds of Hope, Moving Forward, and Gina’s Wheels. She has also been a teacher, a teacher-librarian, and an educational/instructional consultant with Saskatoon Public Schools and has spent more than half her career working in core neighbourhood schools. A few years ago, Mary took a leave of absence to study the effects of colonization on Indigenous students in our school systems. Her thesis is entitled: Soul-to-Soul: Deconstructing Deficit Thinking in the Classroom. Her newest novel, Mistasinîy: Buffalo Rubbing Stone reflects her learning as she, too, walks with our cousins on the journey toward relationships and reconciliation.

Heaven Starr, illustrator

Heaven Starr is a Dakota Cree woman who lives on Starblanket First Nation in east central Saskatchewan. She started drawing and painting in 2014, in her Grade 10 school year, after learning more about her First Nations background. Her hope is that her artwork will honour her ancestors and bloodlines.

Awards

Winner, Children's Books, 2017 Great Midwest Book Festival
Honorable Mention, Young Adult, 2017 Hollywood Book Festival
Honourable Mention, Young Adult Fiction, 2017 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards

Rights Holder

Rights Holder: DriverWorks Ink

email: ddriver@sasktel.net

website: www.driverworks.ca

rights available: World

Additional Information

age range: 10 - 12

number of pages: 184

publication date: 11/17/2016

Original language of pub: English

Materials Available: finished book