The White Ravens Award

A Stranger at Home has been chosen as one of the titles for The White Ravens 2012, the annual selection of outstanding international books for children and young adults, which will be presented at the Bologna Children's Book Fair. The books for this year's exhibition, 250 titles from more than 40 countries, were selected from the thousands of books that the White Ravens library received as review copies from publishers, authors, illustrators, and organisations from all over the world within the last year.

Bid On Art for The Drawing Dreams Charity

If you are interested in buying my print "Entwined" or one of the other gorgeous pieces available for the The Drawing Dreams Charity please go to: www.biddingforgood.com/drawingdreams

Bidding is from March 1st through March 21st

Drawing Dreams Charity Auction

Attend the Drawing Dreams Charity Auction March 1st
at THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN
Click the link below to reserve complimentary tickets to the auction. There are 90 very well known artist's work being auctioned off. My print "Entwined" in in the show. Nice to be in such great company!
http://www.drawingdreams.org/Auction2.html

A Stranger At Home makes the 2012 USBBY list

Great news from USBBY (United States Board on Books for Young People)! Two Annick titles have been named to the 2012 USBBY Outstanding International Books Award.

Stranger at Home  by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Liz Amini-Holmes made this prestigious list!

To see which other books were included, go to http://www.usbby.org/res/2012_USBBY_OIB_Bookmark.pdf.

Quill and Quire Review for A Stranger At Home

A Stranger at Home

by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton; Liz Amini-Holmes

A Stranger at Home is the second instalment in Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s poignant memoirs, written with her daughter-in-law, Christy Jordan-Fenton. The first, Fatty Legs, recalled Margaret’s miserable, two-year stay at a residential school in the Northwest Territories. In the sequel, the Inuit girl, now 10 years old, returns to her family, but the homecoming is not as she hoped. The experience at the school seems to have changed her so much that her mother at first insists she is “not my girl.”  

Margaret feels rejected and misunderstood as she struggles to recall her native language, eat the food her mother prepares, and reconcile her “outsiders’ education” with her family’s customs. Even her given name, Olemaun, sounds foreign.

Finding solace in books, Margaret gradually finds ways to reconnect with her family and surroundings. As she becomes Olemaun once again, she reclaims her place in the family, proudly wearing her mother’s parka, driving her own sled, and going on a hunt with her father. When she returns to school after a year at home, Margaret is stronger, wiser, and better equipped to deal with the assaults on her native culture and identity. 

The story presents a moving portrait of one family’s difficult reconciliation and of the deep wounds left by the residential school system. The prose, written from the perspective of 10-year-old Margaret, is simple, honest, and infused with a young girl’s mixed emotions, making the story accessible and engrossing.

Small photos in the margins, meant to illustrate aspects of the narrative, are distracting. However, Liz Amini-Holmes’s illustrations are beautifully rendered, capturing the landscape in rich, saturated colours. In combination  with Margaret’s story, they help create a textured, compelling book.

Reviewed by Cynthia O’Brien (from the November 2011 issue)

Email Promo Piece

Drawing Dreams Foundation Fundraiser

I am very proud to be selected for the Drawing Dreams Foundation's first fundraiser and art auction held at the Society of Illustrators in New York on Thursday, January 19, 2012. You will be able to buy an original painting of mine and art from illustrators from around the world in an on-line auction prior to the show. Please visit the website in December for more details athttp://www.drawingdreams.org/