The Meaning of Respect

Kelly L. Green is the co-editor of the Children’s Literature edition
of the Canadian Book Review Annual.

This meandering, inconsistent picture book, told from the point of view
of a 12-year-old Cree boy, is ostensibly the story of how said boy
learns “the meaning of respect.” Having motivational problems at
school, he goes to the reserve for some counseling, or spiritual
guidance, from his grandfather. While there, he works with his
grandfather and uncle, trapping, hunting, and fishing. This, the boy
feels, is fun, and “... I’d rather have fun than learn, any day!
It’s just too bad that you couldn’t have fun and learn at the same
time!”

Bouchard beats the reader over the head to make several points in this
convoluted story. (Main point: Native children should connect with their
own culture before taking on white education.) Unfortunately, the book
is so didactic and its messages so contradictory that the point is lost.
An educator himself, Bouchard seems at great pains in this book to make
school singularly unattractive. The reader is left completely confused.

But who are these readers? Despite Les Culleton’s admirable
illustrative attempt to bring meaning to the text, the book’s themes
are too sophisticated for a picture-book audience, yet it is far too
simplistic for the preadolescents at whom it seems aimed.

Bouchard begins and closes the book in a stilted, artificial slang
(accented with multiple exclamation points and question marks), but
veers off in the middle to standard English, with a little of the
geographic chauvinism of his earlier book, If You’re Not from the
Prairie, thrown in for good measure. The main message is admirable, but
there are better choices available. Not a first-choice purchase.