Episode
JOANNE ROBERTSON & SHIRLEY FLETCHER HORN - Shirley: An Indian Residential School Story
- Podcast
- The Book Cover
- Published
- Jun 13, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1953
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-book-cover-7026896/episodes/joanne-robertson-shirley-fletcher-horn-shirley-an-indian-residential-school-story/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-book-cover-7026896/joanne-robertson-shirley-fletcher-horn-shirley-an-indian-residential-school-story.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Shirley is only five years old when she is taken away by the Indian agent to live at a residential school. She loves learning, but she is not there by choice. From the first day walking up the long, lonely stone steps of the school building, life is hard and full of rules. Separated from her brothers and sisters, she is truly on her own. Shirley is very brave, but there is no one she loves to hold her at night when she is afraid. No one to tuck her in and comfort her. Shirley keeps going despite the sadness. She makes friends and has adventures. And most of all, she looks ahead to summertime, when she will be able to return to her family and the happiness of home. The true story of Shirley Horn, a Cree elder and residential school survivor from Northern Ontario. Co-authored and illustrated by Joanne Robertson, it details Shirley’s experience being taken from her family at age five and her life at the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. The inspiring story of a young girl’s resilience and survival at residential school.