‘Fatty Legs’

You hate being teased.

You hate it because it seems to never end, it’s mean and because, no matter how much you argue or protest, you can’t win. You hate such provoking because it’s nothing but bullying with words and it hurts.

And yet – sadly – it still happens sometimes, even if there’s a zero-tolerance policy at school. But what if the meanie wasn’t a classmate? Read more in “Fatty Legs: A True Story” by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, artwork by Liz Amini-Holmes.

For many months, Olemaun begged her father to let her go to school in Aklavik, a five-day journey from their home near the Arctic Circle. More than anything, she wanted to learn to read like her older half-sister, Rosie, and the school’s nuns held the key to that. But Olemaun’s father was discouraging.

He wanted her to keep the ways of her Inuit family. There was much to learn at home and he needed her to help trap and hunt. Her mother cried about how the outsiders would cut Olemaun’s long braids off. Rosie said the outsiders took “everything”.

Still Olemaun wanted to read, but her father told the outsiders “NO” for four summers. Then, when she was 8 years old, Olemaun finally talked her father into leaving her in Aklavik. She was going to school!

But on the first day, it became obvious that school wasn’t going to be so great. The nuns cut her hair, and it was shameful. They spoke quickly in a language that Olemaun couldn’t understand, and they made her do chores before they ever let her set foot in a classroom.

But the worst thing was that they took her name away. From that moment on, Olemaun was known as “Margaret”.

And Margaret positively hated school.

It wasn’t that she was teased by the teacher’s pet. It wasn’t that she missed her family (though she really did!). It wasn’t that chores were more important than school. No, Margaret hated school because one nun, whom Margaret called The Raven, was particularly mean.

And then she got meaner, and Margaret desperately wanted to go home. Could she ever fly above her troubles with a Raven hanging onto her legs?

 “Fatty Legs” is a true story about a subject that’s often brushed beneath the rug of history: not so long ago, Native American and Inuit children were “plucked” from their families and “educated” with an eye toward eradicating their cultures. Authors Margaret Pokiak-Fenton and Christy Jordan-Fenton write that that was a way to replace traditional skills with ones that would “equip them to function in menial jobs.”

Pokiak-Fenton (who is Olemaun) gives her story wings of dismay, anger, sadness, pride and – happily – a satisfying ending. While your child will enjoy illustrations by Liz Amini-Holmes, what drives home the message in this book are the pictures that the authors include.

If your 8-to-12-year-old wants to read a well-done historical memoir, I think this book is a good choice. For her, “Fatty Legs” will provoke more than her thoughts.

• The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 and never goes anywhere without a book.