Dad, I Miss You

A Residential School Story

Nadia Sammurtok author Simji Park illustrator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Inhabit Media Inc

Published:31st Oct '24

£12.99

Supplier delay - available to order, but may take longer than usual.

Dad, I Miss You cover

Based on the author’s family history of residential school separation.

Told in the voice of a boy and his father by turns, this book takes a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the emotional toll of a child being taken from their family and community to attend residential school.

This story is dedicated to the author's mother and father, both of whom are residential school survivors.

Told in the voice of a boy and his father by turns, this book takes a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the emotional toll of a child being taken from their family and community to attend residential school. While the child’s internal monologue expresses his fear, confusion, and loss, the father’s monologue conveys his own sadness, fears, and hopes for the future of his child. The narrative gives voice to the things left unsaid between a parent and child experiencing this heart-rending separation. Upon his return to his community, when father and son are reunited, they must start the long process of reconnection.

Based on the author’s family history of residential school separation, this book provides a unique perspective on the difficult cycle of loss, reconnection, and regaining hope for the future.

Sammurtok, in a small number of pages, captures the ongoing harm and alienation Indigenous communities experience in Canada because of the residential school system. . . By focusing on the feelings of loss and longing in both parent and child, Sammurtok communicates the pain felt by many residential school survivors in a way that young readers can understand.

* Quill & Quire *

By focusing on the unspoken thoughts of a parent and a child, Nadia Sammurtok makes us see something a little different. The bond between a parent and a child is stretched and almost severed and yet there is hope that there is enough resilience to reunite and strengthen. Dad, I Miss You is a story of tragedy but also one of the capacity of family to reconnect and prevail.

  • Runner-up for Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children 2025

ISBN: 9781772274820

Dimensions: 203mm x 229mm x 4mm

Weight: 122g

40 pages