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English Titles

		As Long as the Rivers Flow Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden Illustrations: Heather D. Holmlund Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2002. 39 p. ISBN 0888994737 Ages 8 to 10
As Long as the Rivers Flow Source

As Long as the Rivers Flow is the true story of Larry Loyie, a First Nations child, and author of The Gathering Tree and of the new book When the Spirits Dance (Fall 2006 release). Larry recounts the summer of 1944, when as a 10-year-old, he was living happily at home with his family in the bush near Slave Lake in northern Alberta.

Larry is the eldest of a family of four children. His grandpa named him Oskiniko (Young Man) because he was brave. Through the summer, he learns patience and discipline. He cares for an abandoned baby owl, helps the family to hunt and fish, watches his grandmother make moccasins, and sees her kill a huge grizzly with a single shot.

The summer ends in sadness for Oskiniko, his brothers and his sister when a truck comes to take them away to boarding schools. They will be taught according to European customs and religions in order to erase their traditional languages and cultures.

An epilogue concerning the history and conditions of North America's residential schools, as well as Loyie family photographs, follow the story.

–MDG