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Wenjack

Joseph Boyden
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Wenjack

Joseph Boyden
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Overview

HEATHER'S PICKCANADIAN112 PAGESENGLISH
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Overall rating: 4.4041452 / 5 from 193 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

Wenjack, a shortlisted 2017 OLSN Northern Lit Award book, tells the poignant story of an Ojibwe boy's journey from a North Ontario Indian School. The book is praised for its captivating and powerful writing, beautiful prose, and emotionally charged narrative. It is considered an important read for Canadians, offering a heartfelt look into the experiences of a residential school runaway.

Summary topics

  • Writing Quality: 4%
  • Book Quality: 38%
  • Prose Quality: 4%
  • Importance of Read: 35%

Review topics: [volume, gift, book, read, story, written, novel, writing, prose, boyden, author, boy, illustrations, #plumreview, perspective, chanie, addition, retelling, lessons, work, literature, story of, school, nature, walk, children, intentions, issues, novella, look].

Review highlights

  • "This book is captivating and beautifully heartbreaking." — Anne
  • "Wenjack is a beautifully written, powerful, and heartbreaking little novel." — RhondaDeighton
  • "A beautifully written, heartbreaking short story, that taught me about Canadian history." — Nadia

Reviews

Another illustration of how aboriginal peoples have been misunderstood and mistreated by white colonists

"An extremely moving short story based on true tragic events. Lovely illustrations depicting the narrators. By the end I was in tears."

— Richard (5/5)

Beautiful and Important

"#Indigo Employee As heartbreaking now as the first time I heard the story of Chanie Wenjack in Middle School. This book illuminates Chanie's journey and the end of his life in beautiful, simple prose that highlights both the horrors of residential schools and the culture stolen from Indigenous peoples. The parts of the story told from the perspective of animals watching Chanie as he tries to escape his school are equally vivid, fascinating, and heartrending. This is, quite simply, required reading for any Canadian."

— AidanWB (5/5)

Not suitable for young readers…

"Represented the story well. But I would not recommend this book for a younger reader (explicit content)."

— Karissa17 (3/5)

A Cautionary Tale in researching authors

"A CAUTIONARY TALE ON RESEARCHING AUTHORS Wenjack is a novella based on the true story of Chanie Wenjack, an Anishinaabe boy who died from hunger and exposure while trying to return to his family after running away from a residential school. I have read other novels by this author in the past and have rated them highly as I found his writing to be beautiful and powerful and the stories absolutely captivating. This book was no different - in its short number of beautifully written pages, I was moved to tears over the story of this boy. But then the trouble began. I looked up the author in order to determine whether he was Indigenous so I would know whether to include him among my recommended Indigenous authors and discovered not only is he not Indigenous, but he has made false claims about being so and has accepted cash awards for being an Indigenous author. In the past, I've never given much notice to who was writing the books that I bought and read other than noting an author's name if a book was a standout so I could keep watch for when a new book of theirs was released. Of late, I have set an intention of paying closer attention to the authors who write the books I read and this book is a cautionary tale as to why that is essential. So 5☆ on this one for the writing and the story, but 0☆ on morals and ethics of the author. This will be the last Joseph Boyden novel for me. I think Chanie's story is an important one for people to know, but I'd encourage you to learn about him in other ways rather than buying this book. I had already heard of Chanie's story through Gord Downie's album and graphic novel, The Secret Path (there is a YouTube video of an animated version of the graphic novel set to the music of the album that is amazing). Although not an own voices telling, it's my understanding that many Indigenous voices were involved in its production."

— Memoirsofabooknerd (5/5)

Great novel! That all Canadians should read!

"This is one of Boyden best work. It encompasses the main character's life through different perspectives and allows the reader to walk in the footsteps of Chanie. I would highly recommend it. It is very short/ and easy to read. #plumrewards"

— TeacherLe (5/5)

Incredible

"Incredible. My heart ached for Wenjack and wish to see reconciliation for the First Nations of the Americas"

— Kimberly (5/5)

Eye Opening

"This book was a quick little read, but so interesting, I just wish there was more!"

— HappyMommy (4/5)

mandatory reading; an evocative and moving story.

"I read Boyden's latest as an accompaniment to Gord Downie's Secret Path. This novella of sorts offers a more literary account of Chanie Wenjack's story and is a must-read regardless of your opinions towards Boyden. Very strong writing and essential material."

— JonL (4/5)

Important

"I wish I had learned about this part of Canada's history at school."

— Mich (4/5)

beautiful

"A beautiful little book with an enormous importance."

— Missy (5/5)

Q&A

  • Published date: Oct 18, 2016
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 112
  • Publisher: Penguin Canada
  • ISBN: 9780735233386
  • Dimensions: 4.4" W x 0.38" L x 6.25" H
BESTSELLER
Shortlisted for the 2017 OLSN Northern Lit Award

“A profoundly sensitive writer with the eye of a painter and a heart as big as the country about which he writes.” —Frederick Barton

“Boyden is such a fine writer, evoking his characters’ emotions in a touching and understandable way.” —Toronto Star

“Boyden continues the difficult conversation of reconciliation by allowing us a glimpse into the frightened mind of a child who only knows that home is where he should be—and that Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School is not it.” —Maclean’s

“Joseph Boyden has written Wenjack, a novella that deftly suffuses Chanie’s tragedy with traditional Aboriginal beliefs. . . . This is a world of transformations where owls can turn into mice, and fish give themselves voluntarily to fishermen—a world in which all beings are interconnected through the ceaseless interplay of life and death. . . . At the end of the novella, Boyden shows Chanie in the afterlife dancing and feasting with the animals. The image, meant to convey an ecological and spiritual truth, does little to redeem his final, terrible hours on the tracks.” —Maclean’s
“Chanie Wenjack was just 12 when his body was found beside the railroad tracks just days after he ran away from his residential school in Kenora, Ont. Now, 50 years later, the young Ojibwe boy is being remembered in . . . this magical novella, the chapters alternating between Chanie’s journey and the spirit animals who document his quest—and wait to receive him when he passes over to their sphere.” —Toronto Star

“It should be required reading.” —CTV News
JOSEPH BOYDEN's first novel, Three Day Road, was selected for the Today Show Book Club, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. His second novel, Through Black Spruce, was awarded the Scotiabank Giller Prize and named the Canadian Booksellers Association Fiction Book of the Year; it also earned him the CBA’s Author of the Year Award. His most recent novel, The Orenda, won Canada Reads and was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and Louisiana.

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