The Children’s Home + 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act [Review]

The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert

In a sprawling estate, willfully secluded, lives Morgan Fletcher, the disfigured heir to a fortune of mysterious origins. Morgan spends his days in quiet study, avoiding his reflection in mirrors and the lake at the end of his garden. One day, two children, Moira and David, appear. Morgan takes them in, giving them free reign of the mansion he shares with his housekeeper Engel. Then more children begin to show up.

Dr. Crane, the town physician and Morgan’s lone tether to the outside world, is as taken with the children as Morgan, and begins to spend more time in Morgan’s library. But the children behave strangely. They show a prescient understanding of Morgan’s past, and their bizarre discoveries in the mansion attics grow increasingly disturbing. Every day the children seem to disappear into the hidden rooms of the estate, and perhaps, into the hidden corners of Morgan’s mind.

The Children’s Home is a genre-defying, utterly bewitching masterwork, an inversion of modern fairy tales like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Golden Compass, in which children visit faraway lands to accomplish elusive tasks. Lambert writes from the perspective of the visited, weaving elements of psychological suspense, Jamesian stream of consciousness, and neo-gothic horror, to reveal the inescapable effects of abandonment, isolation, and the grotesque – as well as the glimmers of goodness – buried deep within the soul.

• At the start of June, I had a hankering to read something different from middle grade or young adult fiction. I may have overdosed a bit on those genres due to my children’s and YA lit courses. So I plucked a couple books off my Goodreads to-read-intriguing shelf. I file weird books, ghostly books, something-not-quite-right books, unusual books, on this shelf (excluding MG and YA). I read The Night Rainbow and The Children’s Home in less than three days. (Both are also under 300 pages, with about 1,900 ratings on Goodreads…)
• While Morgan is neither perfect nor unproblematic (he’s rather flawed, really), I found him relatable. I empathized with his experience.
• This book is also a little bit gay. The relationship between Morgan and the doctor develops quietly, but does reach some resolution by the end of the story.
• The low rating on Goodreads surprised me (average 2.94). However, among people I follow, The Children’s Home received: 1 x ★★★★★, 2 x ★★★★, and1 x ★★★. I rated it ★★★★. Yes, it’s one of those peculiar and somewhat obscure novels; you’ll find few straightforward explanations. However, I found Morgan’s story to have a solid enough conclusion that I didn’t feel totally lost by the end.
• Admittedly, I would have liked to know a bit more about the children – especially what was going on in the factory. Though I suppose leaving that part up to the imagination is the most significant of all…

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph

Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer.

Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. Bob Joseph’s book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance—and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act’s cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.

• If I hadn’t read Indigenous Writes last year (which is a much larger book dealing with a variety of Indigenous issues, including the Indian Act), I would have learnt a lot from 21 Things. This handy, compact book would function well as required high school reading and could also be a good primer before delving into the more expansive Indigenous Writes. I would recommend this book for those completely new and/or ignorant about the ways in which the Indian Act and the actions of the Canadian government have impacted Indigenous livelihoods over the past couple centuries. 21 Things‘ succinctness means it may be able to reach a broader audience than Indigenous Writes.
•  The book has an easy to follow layout in a digestible format (being a large list). Select quotes from the Indian Act and other historical figures ground Joseph’s exploration.
• Only a handful of pages at the end argue “and that’s why we need to get rid of the Indian Act”. If this is the only book you’ve read on the subject, you might know that that’s a controversial opinion, even among Indigenous people. There isn’t enough room to address that idea in this book. Joseph focuses four pages on a return to self-governance (and the pages of this book are quite small), which I think is a good point to make, but is a much larger discussion than what can be addressed in this book. I found myself wondering if there’s a good book about what true self-governance would look like today.