Staci Drouillard: Reading & Celebration

A modern-day twist to The Giving Tree, this book chronicles the changes brought upon a beloved family tree that must be uprooted and planted on new land. This debut picture book by Staci Lola Drouillard (Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe descendant) celebrates resiliency, family bonds, and our deep connection to and responsibility for nature.

Grandma’s garden was not just any garden. It was where a spruce tree, only as tall as baby Francis, reached her roots into the soil and stretched her branches toward the sky. Here, on the shore of Gichigaming, is where Francis and the sapling felt right at home.

But when Grandma and Grandpa decide to move away, Francis wants to take the tree with them—can they?

Brimming with tenderness, this story from Staci Lola Drouillard (Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe descendant), with illustrations by Kate Gardiner (Chaubunagungamaug band of Nipmuck Indians), traces the journey of one family, and a little tree, as they adapt to change by drawing on the strength of their roots.

Seven Aunts is an inspired patchwork of memoir and reminiscence, poetry, testimony, love letters, and family lore. In this multifaceted, unconventional portrait, Staci Lola Drouillard summons ways of life largely lost to history and reveals the true heart and soul of that history: women who defied expectations and overwhelming odds to make a place in the world for the next generation.

Host or Publisher Birchbark Books and Native Arts