Key Selling Points

• There are very few children’s books with Métis characters. Although fictional, the story is inspired by the author’s family story.
• This book shares an Ontario Métis story including history, culture, perspective, and language. It features Michif words and phrases, added in partnership with the Métis Nation of Ontario, Métis Languages Initiative team and the Métis Languages Initiative Advisory members.
• The book features a strong female character who values the land, water, family, music, and freedom. The story touches on the implications of the logging industry and coal industry, as well discusses the Canadian Pacific Railway, geology, and ecology.
• Written by Métis author Jessica Outram, who has a deep love for and knowledge of the Georgian Bay landscape, where this adventure takes place.
• An educator for over 20 years, Jessica Outram is Principal of Program in Indigenous Education in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. She is the 4th Poet Laureate where she lives in Cobourg, Ontario.
• With fellow author Catherine Graham, Jessica Outram is the co-host of the Hummingbird Podcast, which airs on Northumberland 89.7 FM.

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 Mémèr’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.

Exuberant, eight-year-old Bernice lives with her Métis family in a lighthouse on Georgian Bay. When she finds a treasure map pointing to gold on a nearby island she is determined to find the treasure.