The Novel Idea Society

Description

The Novel Idea Society is a book club presented by CBC Saskatchewan in partnership with the Regina Public Library. Hosted by Sam Maciag of the CBC Saskatchewan news at 6.

Additional Information

In November we will be reading Children Like Us A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home by Brittany Penner

This is a hybrid event, offered online and in-person. Register to attend in person or join us on Zoom here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85791210380?pwd=AQYszYTBa1VOK9t54LgCrYYZIYm6mg.1 

Book Description

Children Like Us: A Métis Woman's Memoir of Family, Identity and Walking Herself Home by Brittany Penner

A Métis girl is adopted by a Mennonite family in this breathtaking memoir about family lost and found—for those who loved From the Ashes, Educated and Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. 

By the time Brittany Penner is seven years old, she has loved and lost twenty-one foster siblings who have come into her family and left—all of them Indigenous like her. "When will it be my turn?" she asks her mother time and time again. "When will I be taken away?" You won't be, she is told. You're adopted. You're here to stay. You're the lucky one. What does it mean to belong when you feel torn between cultures?

On the day of her birth in 1989, near the end of the Sixties Scoop, Brittany was relinquished into the care of the government and adopted by a white Mennonite family in a small prairie town. Her name and where she came from are hidden from her; all she is told is that she is part-Métis. Her childhood is shaped by church, family, service and silence. Her family is continuously shifting as siblings arrive and depart, one by one. She knows, to stay, she has to force herself into the mold created for her. She must be obedient. Quiet. Good. No matter what.

BRITTANY PENNER is an author, practicing family physician and lecturer with the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine, and has been a keynote speaker at the University of Manitoba. She is currently an MFA candidate at Harvard University. Her personal essays have appeared in Salon, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's, Huffington Post Canada, This Magazine and Canadian Family Physician, and typically revolve around the complex nature of identity and family dynamics.

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20 spots available

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