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Book Summary and Reviews of In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier

In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Mosionier

In Search of April Raintree

by Beatrice Mosionier

  • Published:
  • Jan 1999, 343 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Memories. Some memories are elusive, fleeting, like a butterfly that touches down and is free until it is caught. Others are haunting. You'd rather forget them, but they won't be forgotten. And some are always there. No matter where you are, they are there, too.

In this moving story of legacy and reclamation, two young sisters are taken from their home and family. Powerless in a broken system, April and Cheryl are separated and placed in different foster homes. Despite the distance, they remain close, even as their decisions threaten to divide them emotionally, culturally, and geographically. As one sister embraces her Métis identity, the other tries to leave it behind.

Will the sisters' bond survive as they struggle to make their way in a society that is often indifferent, hostile, and violent?

The first edition of In Search of April Raintree, published in 1984, has since touched many generations of readers, becoming a Canadian school classic. In this edition, ten critical essays accompany one of the best-known texts by an Indigenous author in Canada.

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This information about In Search of April Raintree was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Beatrice Mosionier is a Métis writer best known for her novel In Search of April Raintree, first published in 1983. A school edition, April Raintree, followed in 1984.

The youngest of four children, Beatrice was three years old when the Children's Aid Society of Winnipeg took her from her family. Losing both of her sisters to suicide—Vivian in 1964 and Katherine in 1980—compelled Beatrice to use her experiences growing up in foster homes to write In Search of April Raintree. Since then, it has become a beloved classic, read by generations of Canadians.

Most recently, she wrote the foreword for Overcome, Stories of Women Who Grew Up in the Child Welfare System, by Anne Mahon. She has written several other books, including a play and a short film, and she is the former publisher of Pemmican Publications. She now lives in Enderby, British Columbia.

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