This story spans three idyllic days before a truck arrives to take Shi-shi-etko (whose name means “she who loves to play in the water”) to residential school. As depicted, Shi-shi-etko is, at most, six or seven years old.

Like most youngsters, Shi-shi-etko counts the number of sleeps before a major event. She’s a cherished native child living in a comfortable home with her parents. Aunties, uncles, cousins, and her Yayah live close enough to visit. In the days leading up to Shi-shi-etko’s departure, her mother, father, and Yayah share wisdom with her about the importance of remembering the culture, knowledge, and world of her people.

This gentle, cadenced telling is a first book by Nicola Campbell, a welcome new native voice. Although she follows closely in the footsteps of Larry Loyie and his award-winning As Long as the Rivers Flow, Campbell (whose ancestry is Interior Salish and Métis) targets younger children. Like Loyie, Campbell concludes her tale as the truck drives into the unknown. Although adults – and older children who read Campbell’s preface – will have a sense of what the future holds for Shi-shi-etko, children being read to won’t, at least not without explanation.

Kim LaFave – Governor General’s illustration award recipient (for Amos’s Sweater) and illustrator of a plethora of other popular picture books – revels in an autumn palette of reds, oranges, and browns. Using digital illustration and mostly double-page spreads, he celebrates the natural minutiae (leaves, seeds, roots, berries, meadow flowers, creek life, and hills) of the Canadian west. His portrayal of Shi-shi-etko and her family has an interesting timelessness to it. The setting could be either 50 years ago or today.

Like Loyie’s book, Shi-shi-etko is a must-buy for libraries committed to documenting Canada’s residential school experience. Its greatest value will be as a resource for related curriculum.