Borders by Thomas King, illustrated by Natasha Donovan
CBC Books | Posted: July 23, 2021 8:43 PM | Last Updated: June 12
Acclaimed writer Thomas King is publishing his first graphic novel. Borders was originally a short story written in 1993. It's about a boy and his mother who try to take a road trip from Alberta to Salt Lake City. When they reach the American Canadian border, they identify as Blackfoot, and not Canadian or American — causing problems and putting the pair in limbo between the two countries. What unfolds is a powerful story about justice, identity and belonging.
Borders was adapted into a graphic novel by Natasha Donovan.
King is a Canadian American writer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry who is regarded as one of the most influential Indigenous writers and scholars of his generation.
King was the first Indigenous person to deliver a CBC Massey Lecture in 2003. His bestselling books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian, Green Grass, Running Water, The Back of the Turtle and the DreadfulWater mystery series. He's also written a poetry collection, 77 Fragments of a Familiar Ruin.
Donovan is a Métis illustrator originally from Vancouver. She has illustrated several graphic novels, including the Surviving the City series by Tasha Spillet and Brett Huson's animal series, which includes The Sockeye Mother, The Grizzly Mother and The Eagle Mother. She also illustrated the cover for The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills and her work appears in the anthology This Place: 150 Years Retold.
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