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Fatty Legs

This residential school memoir from Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's is intended for young readers.

Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes

CBC Books Posted: Mar 03, 2017 2:19 PM EST | Last Updated: June 30, 2021

A book cover of fatty legs. — (Penguin Random House)

Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential schools. At school Margaret soon encounters the Raven, a black-cloaked nun with a hooked nose and bony fingers that resemble claws. She immediately dislikes the strong-willed young Margaret. Intending to humiliate her, the heartless Raven gives gray stockings to all the girls all except Margaret, who gets red ones. In an instant Margaret is the laughingstock of the entire school. In the face of such cruelty, Margaret refuses to be intimidated and bravely gets rid of the stockings. Although a sympathetic nun stands up for Margaret, in the end it is this brave young girl who gives the Raven a lesson in the power of human dignity.Complemented by archival photos from Margaret Pokiak-Fenton's collection and striking artworks from Liz Amini-Holmes, this inspiring first-person account of a plucky girl's determination to confront her tormentor will linger with young readers. (AnnickPress)

Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton wasaInuvialuit knowledge keeper andresidential school survivor. She was the co-author of several books, includingFatty Legs: A True Story,A Stranger At Home,When I Was EightandNot My Girl.She died in 2021.

Christy Jordan-Fentonis Pokiak-Fenton's daughter-in-law and co-author. She now lives in Fort St. John, B.C.

Gabrielle Grimard has illustrated over 30 picture books, includingStolen Words,When I Was Eight,Not My GirlandStolen Words.She lives in Quebec.

From the book

When I was a young girl, outsiders came flitting about the North. They plucked us from our homes on the scattered islands of the Arctic Ocean and carried us back to the nests they called schools, in Aklavik.

Three times I had made the five-day journey to Aklavik with my father, across the open ocean, past Tuktoyaktuk, and through the tangled Mackenzie River delta, to buy supplies. I was mesmerized on each trip by the spectacle of the strange dark-cloaked nuns, whose tongues flickered with French-Canadian accents, and the pale-skinned priests who had traveled across a different ocean from a far-off land called Belgium. They held the key to the greatest of the outsiders' mysteries reading.

From Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton 2010. Published by Annick Press.

Interviews withChristy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

The Next Chapter15:01Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton on Fatty Legs

Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton celebrate the 10th anniversary of their children's book Fatty Legs, which tells a story from Pokiak-Fenton's time in residential school.

Unreserved6:31Residential school memoir set to become new Canadian children's classic

An Inuk grandmother's life has inspired a best-selling series of books about residential school so popular, they're set to become Canadian children's classic. Fatty Legs, the first in the series, is still making Top 10 lists six years after coming out.

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