Katherena Vermette Books in Order

A poetry collection rooted in Winnipeg's North End, where family life, loss, the river, and everyday beauty share the page. Vermette looks closely at a community too often reduced to outsiders' assumptions.

Kode's class is learning about respect, but she isn't sure what the word really means. Answers from her parents, siblings, and grandparents help her see respect for people, the environment, and herself.

Ma'iingan loves singing and knows she is good at it, until her little sister wants to join in. Their rivalry gives Ma'iingan a chance to learn humility and the joy of sharing her talent.

Makwa has just moved to the city and faces his first day at a new school without friends. With everything unfamiliar and frightening, he must find the courage to step through the classroom door.

Migizi wants to cheer his grandmother, Gookom, while she is in the hospital, and he is determined to find the perfect gift. Family and friends offer ideas, but he learns that love can be shown in simple, personal ways.

Amik happily tells Moshoom about his school, then learns his grandfather's residential-school experience was painfully different. Looking for a wise response, Amik invites Moshoom to see the welcoming place where he now learns.

Misaabe delights friends with wild stories about trolls, x-ray glasses, and his secret-agent father. When his inventions stretch too far, he has to face his insecurities and learn what honesty with friends can look like.

When Miskwaadesi's class discusses the teaching of Truth, she isn't sure how to explain it. With guidance from her teacher Betsy, she considers what she knows about herself, her community, and the world.

After Stella witnesses someone in danger on a desolate strip of land in Winnipeg's North End, a violent crime pulls many lives into view. Shifting perspectives follow family, friends, and police through grief, fear, and connection.

Thirteen-year-old Métis teen Echo Desjardins is struggling at a new school when history class sends her back to 1814. In the prairies, she witnesses a bison hunt, fur-trade life, and the tensions behind the Pemmican Wars.

This poetry collection returns to the river, the body, language, and the natural world as it considers love, trauma, and repair. Its poems look for ways to reclaim what has been damaged while staying close to place and history.

Echo Desjardins is pulled back to the Red River in 1869, where Métis families face surveyors and the loss of their land. Watching resistance gather, she confronts a history that feels personal and urgent.

While berry picking, a young girl wanders too far from her mother and becomes lost in the woods. A grey wolf's calm questions help her remember the skills and confidence she needs to find her way.

Echo travels to 1885, after the bison have disappeared and Métis communities face hunger, newcomers, and ignored petitions. As Louis Riel returns, she witnesses a desperate fight to protect a way of life.

Echo returns to 1885 as Louis Riel faces trial and the promise of Métis land remains unmet. When her ancestors are driven from Ste. Madeleine toward Rooster Town, she sees survival and family strength in a new light.

Cedar, Phoenix, and Elsie have been separated by foster care, addiction, detention, and the systems surrounding them. Their linked stories trace a mother and daughters trying to reconnect, survive, and build a future not defined by loss.

Métis sisters June and lyn are carrying old wounds when their estranged white mother is exposed for falsely claiming Indigenous identity. The fallout forces them to reckon with family history, public anger, and their own ideas of belonging.