Sugar Falls - A Residential School Story - Review

A heartbreaking story about residential schools and how they’ve affected many innocent lives. The harm caused by residential schools was severe, and its consequences are still being felt. Sugar Falls by David Alexander Robertson explains the terrible past of Canadian history while showing the true horrors of what went on in residential schools. This is based on the real-life experiences of Cross Lake First Nation elder Betty Ross, who honours us all by sharing her story.

Daniel meets his friend's grandma Betsy as a result of a school assignment to interview a residential school survivor. Betsy proceeds to willingly share her appalling tale with Daniel. Betsy was abandoned as a small child and was soon adopted by a kind family. At the age of 8, however, which was just a few short years later, everything changed. Betsy was taken away and sent to a boarding school. Betsy recalled the words her father had said to her in Sugar Falls, words that had given her the fortitude, strength, and resolve to endure the torture and treatment she was forced to there.

As the story progresses, you learn more about Betsy’s awful experience in the residential schools. For junior and intermediate students, this is a significant and required read. a great text to introduce the topic of residential schools and initiate conversations. Exactly the right size and level of detail for a younger audience. It serves as an excellent introduction to residential schools, the harm they did, and how we can all move ahead with compassion, sharing, and awareness. However, please be aware that this book does include graphic physical violence and allusion to sexual abuse.

This book was really hard to read. Not only because of the content inside but because I knew that that was only the surface level of what happened in history with the cruel treatment of indigenous kids and families. After some research, I’ve learned that some residential schools deliberately used kids as experiments. In April 1948, there was a five-year study of the effects of vitamin C and other vitamins on the physical, dental, and mental health of kids - kids were not allowed vitamin C at all. Imagine how that impacted them, and that is only the beginning of all the horrible things that happened to poor children. We also don’t know a lot of things - the only reason there is information about residential schools now is because of brave survivors, artifacts, and proof supporting this. I fully believe that there was much more that went on in those terrible schools that we do not know about these days because no one is alive to educate us about them.

Thank you to David A. Robertson for such an educating story - and an even bigger thank you to Betty Ross for sharing her story and touching so many hearts. I’m very grateful for them and many others who’ve brought true stories of the residential school system to light and enlightened many people. I cannot tell you how relieved I am that more people are being educated about the truth behind residential schools. I would recommend this book to anyone ages 12+ since it does have some scenes that could be considered inappropriate for kids under 12. However, this is a part of history that everyone should learn at one point or another. A beautifully written story that, in a way, made me feel as though I were the one being told the story. This brief graphic novel detailed the horrifying yet inspiring true tale of a residential school survivor. This book is a part of history that must be heard.

Written by Hasini Keetha