-
Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold
This is a story inspired by my own family and my great-Aunt Bernice. She was like a grandmother to me. It was a joy to imagine their lives on the island (a mile from where my parents have a home today). The story is fiction. It’s a way for people of all ages to learn more about a Métis family in Ontario before they hid their identity for protection and to stay together.
“A treasure map sparks a coastal Canadian Métis eight-year-old’s search for gold in an exuberant, richly detailed novel from a Métis author sharing her family’s fictionalized history…. A sweet historical fiction pick for fans of well-intentioned young protagonists with enlightening Indigenous representation.” Booklist
“This is a novel for young teens, featuring historical fiction depicting life on this part of Georgian Bay in the early 1900s, and a history of the Indigenous people, the voyageurs and the settlers who came later to these islands. It is also a compelling novel about an adventurous girl who finds that the real gold on Georgian Bay is right where she lives.” Charlotte Stein, ParrySound.com
“Author Jessica Outram has given us a story with a difference: a book that incorporates many phrases in the Métis language, Michif.” Helen Norrie, Winnipeg Free Press
“An excellent complementary read for indigenous or Canadian history studies. It is a worthwhile and thoughtful read and an admirable way of paying tribute to past generations. Highly Recommended.” Canadian Review of Materials
“As a story, it will interest readers of all ages, moving deftly between the warm family scenes, industries across the water, and the dangerous storms of Georgian Bay.” Historical Novel Society
“Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold is an amusing and informative story that serves both to entertain and educate the reader. It would be a positive addition to any home or school library.” Anishinabek News
Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold is now available in hardcover as a Junior Library Guild selection.
Follow me on social media to learn more about some of the people and places who inspired the book.
Winner of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, 2024.
Brave Bernice is ready for an adventure!
It’s the summer of 1914. Eight-year-old Bernice lives with her family in a lighthouse on Georgian Bay. One day Bernice wakes up to find a stranger named Tom Thomson sleeping in their living room. When she overhears him talk about gold on a nearby island, Bernice is determined to find it. Inspired by her beloved Mémère’s stories of their Métis family’s adventures and hardships, Bernice takes the treasure map the stranger left behind and sets out in a rowboat with nothing more than her two dogs for company and the dream of changing her family’s fortunes forever.
Product Information: Bernice and the Georgian Bay Gold
- Release: May 16, 2023
- Second Story Press
- $12.95 Paperback
- 190 Pages
- 5.25″ x 7.5″
- Children’s Fiction
- Ages 9-12 / Grades 4-7
- ISBN: 9781772603187
-
The Thing with Feathers
The Thing With Feathers by Jessica Outram
A collection of poetry available to purchase from the publisher or on Amazon.
Books are also available from Let’s Talk Books in Cobourg and Caversham Booksellers in Toronto.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soulEmily Dickinson
This is a story of becoming whole by reassembling broken pieces of self, holding onto hope in the darkest moments, and seeing everything in a new light.
The Thing With Feathers takes you on an intimate journey of truth, transformation, and healing of spirit. From cherry blossom tree trunks to the shores of Georgian Bay, these poems evoke reverence, recalling past lives and ancestral Metis blood memory passed down from grandmothers.
~ Sarah Lewis, Poet Laureate, Peterborough ONPoetry that’s both affective and effective in recognizing the power of expression as a means of revealing the human spirit. There is clarity of language in these poems, and in that clarity the reader finds what it means to feel alive.
~ Antony Di Nardo, PoetClick here to read Anthony Di Nardo’s full-length review of The Thing with Feathers.
Here are poems that show a way to build belonging. With clarity and sharp imagery, Outram’s poetry aches with the will to transform. They swirl beyond the whirlpool of rules because it’s all possible. Slowly, a new self emerges by breaking down threads / pulled by uncertainty. Through the deliberate act of seeing, facing, and confronting, a knowing, more integrated self comes to light. A fresh, vivid and heartfelt debut.
~”Catherine Graham, Poet, Aether: An Out-of-Body Lyric and The Celery ForestClick here to read Kate Rogers’ review of The Thing with Feathers.
April 16th 2022 Launch: Art Gallery of Northumberland 
April 16th, 2022 Launch: Art Gallery of Northumberland
