Larry Loyie

"As Long as the Rivers Flow" tells the true story of a young Cree boy and the last summer with his family before he and his siblings were forced into boarding school. In many ways, it is a coming of age story, as Lawrence goes through many new exciting experiences and trials to earning the name Oskiniko- "Young Man." The story opens with Lawrence's father giving him and his siblings an baby owl to care for until it is able to fly away on its own, and from there goes into the preparations made to leave for the summer camp. The reader experiences summer camp life alongside Lawrence, as he tries to prove to his father that he is ready to hunt with the adults, helps with chores and berry picking, learns about medicines from his grandmother, and encountering a grizzly bear as he is on a trial with her. On the return home, there is a celebration and many stories shared, cementing the bonds between family and the love they share for each other. This peak into Lawrence's life makes it all the more heart breaking as his mother tearfully admits to her children that they are being taken away from the family by the government.
On the day they are spirited away, the reader can see and feel the overwhelming loss that takes place through the simple words and complex illustrations: the grandmother's despondent face, the father's anger and helplessness expressed in a clenched fist, the mother and children's tears as they are separated by white men who "look like crows."

An afterwords gives a brief description of the life at boarding school by the children, with black and white photos of them at their schools. Though written in a format more so for an older audience, this afterword gives us valuable information about the conditions of the boarding schools, where the children were mistreated and did more labor than learning. Once he left the schools, Lawrence felt disconnected from his family and culture, lost between two worlds. I'm left wanting to read a more in depth account of the those years within the schools and his path after leaving them, but in a second book rather than in this one itself. This book is well paced and executed in terms of storytelling, as it leaves us with the impacting uncertainty and loss the families felt as they were separated.… (altro)