Fatty Legs

Fatty Legs
By Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Annick Press, 2010. 104 pgs. Young Adult Nonfiction

Olemaun is a young Inuvialuit girl living with her family in Canada. She begs for the chance to go to a Catholic boarding school, and her family reluctantly agrees to let her go. When she gets there, though, she finds out that it isn't as great as she'd expected. She thought she'd be focused on reading and learning but she finds that she's punished for speaking her own language, forced to spend hours cleaning, and even has to answer to a new name, Margaret. To make matters worse, one of the nuns, whom she calls the Raven, seems to really hate her and singles her out for punishment.

Olemaun is a spunky girl, and I appreciated the chance to read her story and see how she was determined to make the best of a bad situation. She showed both good and bad things about the boarding school and those running it, but mostly, she demonstrated the strength it takes to overcome obstacles.

AE