April Raintree is a powerful novel about the plight of two sisters who grew up apart from each other after being forced into foster care. They grew up knowing their parents took a lot of “medicine” - that “medicine” was alcohol and led to their parents losing custody of April and Cheryl Raintree. Originally, both sisters went into loving foster homes. Eventually, both sisters went into terrible foster homes and lost contact with their parents. As they grew older, they grew apart. They faced many challenges due to being of mixed aboriginal descent and in foster care. They battled with their origins and struggled with relationships. Their story isn’t easy, but it is important.

Two sisters who are half Métis and half white, and have been living with parents who are alcoholics and basically neglect the girls. When April is 6 and Cheryl is 4 they are taken away by Child Services and put into an orphanage run by nuns. The nuns don’t treat any of the children in their care very well, and are determined to erase any pride in their Native identity the kids might feel. Eventually, April and Cheryl are separated, fostered out to separate families. There they are both treated well for the few years they live with their foster families.

But eventually circumstances change, and April is sent to live on a farm with family. The mother and her two children despise Native children and treat April with a great deal of cruelty. Then, Cheryl’s circumstances change and she finds herself living in the same family as April. Sadly, their social worker doesn’t notice anything happening, and only takes the word of the mother, not trusting the word of a Native girl. Finally, they get a new social worker and spend the rest of foster care in better circumstances.

Despite always doing well in school, when April and Cheryl age out of foster care, their lives are difficult. The trauma they experienced growing up - being essentially abandoned by their parents, living in foster care and never really belonging, losing their sense of Native identity, dealing with alcoholism, discrimination, injustice, prostitution, and cruelty - takes it toll on both sisters.

This is a raw, emotionally gripping novel, pulling no punches about how Native children are treated and the prejudice they experience. It’s a little too mature for my readers, but I would highly recommend it to older readers. It is narrated by April and although it was originally published in 1983, it really holds up today - which is really sad, when you think about it.