Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad has released a new children’s book based on her experience with residential school.
Phyllis’s Orange Shirt is a spin off of her first book, The Orange Shirt Story, an illustrated children’s book which tells her story of her first day as a six year old at the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School near Williams Lake and how the new orange shirt she wore, purchased by her grandmother, was taken from her.
READ MORE: Orange Shirt Day office opens in Williams Lake
In Phyllis’s Orange Shirt, the nuns have been taken out of the story and it has also been made into a rhyming book, both of which make it easier to use when talking to young children about the difficult subject, she said.
Webstad’s work in retelling her story and the history of residential schools to present-day school children has been recognized across the country, and her efforts have culminated in Orange Shirt Day becoming a nationally recognized day of remembrance.
READ MORE: SD27 prepares to celebrate Orange Shirt Day for the fifth year
Earlier this year the Orange Shirt Day Society opened an office in Williams Lake, where Webstad is devoting her efforts full-time.
The book, which is 30 pages long with many full page illustrations, is available at The Open Book.
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