Summary
Margaret can't wait to see her family, but her homecoming is not what she expected.
Two years ago, Margaret left her Arctic home for the outsiders' school. Now she has returned and can barely contain her excitement as she rushes towards her waiting family--but her mother stands still as a stone. This strange, skinny child, with her hair cropped short, can't be her daughter. "Not my girl!" she says angrily.
Margaret's years at school have changed her. Now ten years old, she has forgotten her language and the skills to hunt and fish. She can't even stomach her mother's food. Her only comfort is in the books she learned to read at school.
Gradually, Margaret relearns the words and ways of her people. With time, she earns her father's trust enough to be given a dogsled of her own. As her family watches with pride, Margaret knows she has found her place once more.
Based on the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, and complemented by evocative illustrations, Not My Girl makes the original, award-winning memoir, A Stranger at Home, accessible to younger children. It is also a sequel to the picture book When I Was Eight. A poignant story of a determined young girl's struggle to belong, it will both move and inspire readers everywhere.
Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton was an Inuvialuk elder, knowledge keeper, author, and an artisan. She was born in Ballie Island, Canada, on June 7, 1936. Her family traveled the high Arctic. Her older sister would read to her. She wanted to read and asked her parents to send her to a residential school. Her first book, Fatty Legs: A True Story, recounts her experiences at the school and how she handled being mistreated. Her other books include A Stranger at Home (2011), When I was Eight (2013), and Not My Girl (2014). Writing was a way for her to process her past and reconnect with her heritage. Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, First Nations author, died in her apartment in Fort St. John, B. C., on April 21, 2021 after suffering from lung disease and diabetes. She was 84.
(Bowker Author Biography)