Portage & Main Press

09/25/2025

Support independent Canadian bookstores ✨🙌🏽

A beautifully illustrated book that gently explores the complicated feelings a young girl experiences as she learns about tragedy and injustice. 'Miya Wears Orange' by Wanda John-Kehewin & Erika Rodriguez Medina is today's Featured in-store! 💕🇨🇦📚🧡

"Miya loves her school and she especially loves storytime. One day, her teacher shares a story about a little girl who was taken away to a residential school. The little girl wasn’t allowed to go home. Her hair was cut and she wasn’t allowed to keep her favourite doll. She was taken away from her family because she was Indigenous, just like Miya!

Miya worries the same thing will happen to her. Her mom tells her that Indigenous girls and boys aren’t forced to leave their families anymore. Miya is relieved, but she is still sad. What can she do about these feelings?"

Visit us in person or online at tidewaterbooks.ca 💕🇨🇦📚

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Portage & Main Press Wanda John-Kehewin

09/12/2025

✨ TRC Book Spotlight ✨
"Miya Wears Orange" by Wanda John-Kehewin, illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina, is a moving story of a young Cree girl learning about residential schools, her fears, and the comfort she finds through her mother’s guidance.
A gentle, beautifully illustrated picture book that helps children process difficult history while centering resilience, love, and emotional healing. 💛📚

09/11/2025

📚🧡 Books for TRC Day

September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — a time to honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and to reflect on the legacy of residential schools.
We’re highlighting five powerful books by Indigenous authors that help children, youth, and families learn, reflect, and grow together:

1️⃣ Miya Wears Orange by Wanda John-Kehewin – A beautifully illustrated story of a young girl processing big feelings after learning about residential schools.

2️⃣ When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson – A moving picture book where a grandmother shares her residential school experiences with her curious granddaughter.

3️⃣ Sugar Falls by David A. Robertson – Inspired by Elder Betty Ross’s true story of resilience and survival, now in a 10th anniversary edition.

4️⃣ 7 Generations by David A. Robertson – An epic Plains Cree saga spanning centuries, exploring identity, history, and healing across generations.

5️⃣ Amik Loves School by katherena vermette – A heartwarming story of a child and grandfather, bridging the past and present through Anishinaabe teachings.

✨ This TRC Day, we encourage reading, reflection, and learning together.

08/26/2025

"Everyone has a gift, and every gift is special!"

Becoming an author of a book called WE NEED EVERYONE, working with an iconic illustrator like TIFF BARTEL, being supported and believed in before day 1 from ANGIE LAMIRANDE, creating alongside HIGHWATER PRESS has been a dream come true!

If you have shared WNE or the free teachers guide in your school or classroom or organization, please know I am forever grateful for the love and support. This book shares some of my foundational beliefs about how we need each and every person to find and share their gifts with the world in order to have a truly happy and healthy community.

We Need Everyone means no one gets left behind.

📸 Devon Paige Photography

08/26/2025

✨ Just Released! ✨

Hands-On Social Studies for Ontario: An Inquiry Approach – Grade 1 📘

What’s inside:
✅ Curriculum-aligned to Ontario’s 2023 Social Studies updates + Growing Success
✅ Fully inquiry-based with student reflection at the core
✅ Ready-to-use lessons, assessments, and digital supports
✅ Ontario-specific Indigenous perspectives woven throughout
✅ FREE extras: image banks (JPG) + reproducibles (PDF)
Perfect for time-saving, cost-effective, engaging learning in today’s classrooms.

08/18/2025

📚✨Teacher Guides ✨📚

If you're looking for literature-based, little-to-no-prep resources, we wanted to share some incredible teacher guides created by Indigenous educators that can make planning just a bit easier.

🆓 For Primary – Grade 6 (all FREE):
Miya Wears Orange • Dad, is it Time to Gather Mint? • Herring to Huckleberries • Little by Little • We Need Everyone • The Kodiaks • The Bee Mother

💡 For Grades 7–12 (some FREE, some paid):
Between the Pipes • REDress • This Place: 150 Years Retold • The Rez Doctor • Little Moons • In Search of April Raintree • Surviving the City Series • Sugar Falls

They’re curriculum-connected, low-prep, and a great way to center Indigenous voices and perspectives in the classroom.

Here’s to building meaningful, inclusive learning from day one. 💛

🔗 Link in bio for more info.

08/07/2025

We're Hiring!

Apply here: https://www.portageandmainpress.com/Blog/News-Blog-2025/Job-Posting-Marketing-and-Administrative-Assistant

07/28/2025

Hendrix is learning to be proud of his long hair🙌🏽❤️

Besides providing a means to have healthy, strong, and deadly hair with , it's also about providing support to our young warriors on their journey! Hendrix was given a rough time recently because he had long hair....I was able to speak to him and gift him this book: The Strength Of His Hair, by Charlene Bearhead, published by . I will definitely be ordering more from this informative Indigenous series. Keep on growing that Long Hair, Proud Hair, young warrior!!

07/10/2025

📚✨ Summer Reading Challenge: Indigenous Lit Edition! ✨📚
Looking for meaningful reads this summer? Our Indigenous Literature BINGO card is here!

From time-traveling fiction to stories about resilience, language, family, and the land — each square highlights a unique way to engage with Indigenous voices and perspectives. Perfect for students, educators, book clubs, and anyone looking to read deeper.

🧡 Tag us when you hit a BINGO — or better yet, fill the whole card!

06/12/2025

Surviving the City Series and Teacher Guide are available from GoodMinds.com.

Surviving the City Teacher Guide : Exploring Identity, Allyship, and Social Action for Meaningful Change in Grades 7-12. (2025)
The Teacher Guide for Surviving the City is best suited for use with students in grades 7–12 taking English Language Arts; First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Studies; Global Issues; and similar subjects. Author Christine M’Lot is an Anishinaabe educator, curriculum developer, and consultant from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Visit our online catalogue to order:
https://goodminds.com/products/surviving-the-city-teacher-guide-exploring-identity-allyship-and-social-action-for-meaningful-change-in-grades-7-12

Surviving the City Series Volumes 1-3. By New York Times–bestselling author Tasha Spillett.
Visit our online catalogue to order:
Surviving the City Vol 1: https://goodminds.com/products/9781553797562
Surviving the City Vol 2: https://goodminds.com/products/9781553798989
Surviving the City. Vol.3: We Are the Medicine: https://goodminds.com/products/surviving-the-city-vol-3-we-are-the-medicine

06/05/2025

🌍📚 World Environment Day 2025 📚🌿
This June 5, we honour the Earth and celebrate the deep connections between land, language, learning, and community. 🌱

Our World Environment Day Picks spotlight new and upcoming books that highlight the vital relationships Indigenous communities hold with the land — stories rooted in tradition, care, and seasonal rhythms.

✨ Dad, Is It Time to Gather Mint? by Tyna Legault Taylor
A heartwarming read-aloud that follows Joshua as he learns to read the signs of the land alongside his dad, in the mint-gathering traditions of Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek.

✨ Kokum, Are These Moose Tracks? by Tyna Legault Taylor
Join Joshua and his Kokum on a quiet, autumn moose-tracking adventure that celebrates intergenerational knowledge, curiosity, and connection to the land.

✨ Herring to Huckleberry by ošil Betty Wilson
Through joyful seasonal memories, ošil and her grandparents invite readers to explore the gifts of the sea and forest, shared in both ʔayʔajuθəm and English.

✨ Renewal: Indigenous Perspectives on Land-Based Education
Edited by Christine M’Lot and Katya Adamov Ferguson
A powerful resource for educators ready to bring land-based learning and Indigenous worldviews into the classroom with care, respect, and intention.

This World Environment Day, we invite you to listen to the land — and to the voices who have cared for it since time immemorial. 🌎🧡

06/03/2025

📖✨ Sneak Peek! ✨📖
We’re so proud to introduce Miya Wears Orange — a tender and beautifully illustrated new children’s book that helps young readers navigate big questions and even bigger feelings.

When Miya learns about the history of residential schools during storytime, she feels scared, confused, and sad. With gentle guidance from her mom, she begins to understand the past — and finds comfort in the truth, healing in her family’s love, and strength in remembrance.

“Miya Wears Orange” is a moving, age-appropriate story that opens the door to conversations about truth, injustice, and resilience — a meaningful addition to every child’s bookshelf. 🧡 Available for pre-order now!

By Wanda John-Kehewin
Illustrated by Erika Rodriguez Medina