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Description

Description: Skye Bird and her friends are beginning a new school year at a shiny new school that doesn’t look or feel at all welcoming or as cozy as their old school did. Skye’s brother is excited about joining the football team and making new friends, but Skye can’t seem to adapt to this new environment. Although Skye tries to be brave and encouraging for her young sister Cheyenne, this new school’s library doesn’t have the books Cheyenne wants to read about their culture and history, and Cheyenne is confused. Skye’s teacher doesn’t understand and isn’t even trying to get to know her. Skye’s classmates laugh at her. Worse yet, the only activity she really loves is powwow dancing, but there is no such thing at this school and her principal won’t even consider the idea! Skye can’t stop thinking about dancing powwow and starting a Culture Club and Drumming Group at her new school – but how could that happen? One night, an old woman comes to Skye in a vision. She’s carrying an eagle feather … and Skye learns what she must do to make things right.

SK Curriculum: Grades 6-9 – ELA, Social Studies

Awards/Honours:  Silver, Pre-teen Fiction, Historical / Cultural, 2018 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards;
​Best Books for Kids and Teens 2018, Junior & Intermediate Fiction, The Canadian Children’s Book Centre.
ISBN 978-1-927570-39-5; 5.25″w x 7.5″h; 160 pages; cover art and 10 illustrations by Heaven Starr.
© ​2017; Ages 10 and Up; Children’s fiction; Indigenous Peoples; First Nations; Self-realization; Friendship; Family; Change; Determination; Reconciliation; Canadian History; Literacy; Education; Learning resources; Prairie Provinces; Saskatchewan author; Canadian.

Available as an e-book from Kobo, Apple, Amazon, and more. Search e-book vendor sites by book title or author name.

About the Author: Mary Harelkin Bishop is an award-winning author of numerous bestselling juvenile historical fiction books. She has been a teacher, a teacher-librarian, and an educational/ instructional consultant with Saskatoon Public Schools, having spent more than half her career working in core neighbourhood schools and First Nations schools. She resides in Saskatoon and has worked on writing projects with elementary schools in Saskatoon as well as mentoring adult writers and doing author presentations. Mary has taught a master’s class in Canadian Children’s Literature at the University of Saskatchewan and literature classes for SUNTEP (Saskatoon Urban Native Teacher Education Program) through the Gabriel Dumont Institute.

Responses from Readers: 

• “I just finished reading Skye Bird and the Eagle Feather and loved it!  The true-to-life characters and dialogue kept me turning the pages, wondering “What will Skye do?”  I also appreciated the respectful way in which the story was told, acknowledging the story of Canadian Indigenous people and elevating the importance of telling that history and keeping it alive for current and future generations of all Canadians.”
• “Wow! I loved this book. The characters are true to life and the content is dead-on insofar as what really happens to some Aboriginal people when they ‘try’ to fit in.”
• “A captivating story about a young First Nation girl’s spiritual journey of growth, strength, and determination.”
• “The book is a great way for children to discover the history that is all around them and the significant part that each of us plays in our world.”
• “We need more books like this.”

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