Goodbye Buffalo Bay

by Larry Loyie, Constance Brissenden, Loyie Larry

Drama and humour combine in Goodbye Buffalo Bay by award-winning Cree author Larry Loyie. The sequel to the award-winning book As Long as the Rivers Flow and the award-finalist When the Spirits Dance Goodbye Buffalo Bay is set during the author's teenaged years. In his last year in residential school, Lawrence learns the power of friendship and finds the courage to stand up for his beliefs. He returns home to find the traditional First Nations life he loved is over. He feels like a stranger to his family until his grandfather's gentle guidance helps him find his way. New adventures arise; Lawrence fights a terrifying forest fire, makes his first non-Native friends, stands up for himself in the harsh conditions of a sawmill, meets his first sweetheart and fulfills his dream of living in the mountains. Wearing new ice skates bought with his hard-won wages, Lawrence discovers a sense of freedom and self-esteem.Goodbye Buffalo Bay explores the themes of self-discovery, the importance of friendship, the difference between anger and assertiveness and the realization of youthful dreams.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Canada, Memoir, Cultural

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot about residential schools from this story, but the actual plot wasn't overly exciting or engaging. Read with Grade 7 students and while they took important information away from it, they had a hard time getting through it.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Canadian book about residential schools, friendship and moving beyond anger. Cree author, Larry Loire, shares his very personal story of the realities of his residential school experience, and the possibility of emerging beyond it to realize dreams. Gr. 4-7 audience.

[Anonymous · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about residential school, and how a boy lost his traditional skills and learned the way of a white man, during his stay at R.S. (Residential School) he has been doing hard work for the teachers there. His last year there he learned about friendship and courage, He was sent back to Buffalo Bay and was taught everything he knew all over again, he worked multiple jobs and travelled to a lot of different places.

I would recommend this book to other readers, because this book is interesting and very well written. what i found interesting about this book is when the main character was done with R.S. and learned his traditional skills and language again.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelous sequel to Loyie's picture book memoir, As Long as the Rivers Flow but with an older audience in mind - Loyie not only movingly evokes the trauma of the Residential Schools on the children shows how the losses of language, culture and traditions affect family interactions as well AND how little prepared these children were by the second-rate "education" the schools provided. It is a moving and poignant book that needs to be shared!

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the true story of Larry Loyie, the Cree author. Larry tells of his experiences in the St. Bernard Mission residential school. I suppose the people that worked at those schools thought they were doing good work, but we now look back on it with horror. How can people actually bully the children they are trusted to care for?

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Target audience is tween.

[Amy Mathers · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/goodbye...

[Bibiana Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written story about one child's experience at a residential school. Unbelievable that the last residential school was closed in 1998! The cruelty of those running the school is appalling.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. A sad honest story of life in residential school.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodbye Buffalo Bay follows a young man Lawrence who at an age of 9 was taken from his family and endured the hardship of the residential school system. One of the reasons that he managed to make it through the horrors of the school was because of a nun sister Thersa; she helped Lawrence to develop dreams about traveling and exploring parts of the world. Which for Lawrence gave him a sense of hope and persistence that he will see the world one day. This drove Lawrence to make sure that he survives school. After his time in school, The world he entered was different from the one he left, cause the ones around him saw Lawrence like an alien that he didn’t seem fit for the new world. Lawrence began to work to prove himself to others and himself that he has what it takes to be in this world. Once he proved himself he began a process of reclamation his identity and dignity with the help of his friends, elders, people around him, and lessons he learned from the residential school. When I finished reading Goodbye Buffalo Bay, I know that it gives young readers a peek into what former students had to go through in the residential schools as well as how they undergo the process of healing and reclamation of their culture. As well as how a former student may go about living their life with new perspectives and past experiences. With that said I believe that this book would be a worthy read to anyone of any age but mainly to someone who doesn’t know a lot about residential schools and who wants an understanding of what they were and how they continue to have an impact on many individuals today.

[Amy Loewe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked how it tells the story without being too graphic. It is a great book to introduce students to the ideas of boarding schools. There where a couple chapters in the end that seemed to get off topic and were more just individual memories for the author but could create a discussion on why he included them. Introduces concepts of the struggle and how he dealt with them without giving a lot of detail again leading to discussions of how would you handle that situation.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing lacks flow or any character development, but Goodbye Buffalo Bay will give readers snippets of an understanding of the Canadian residential school system and the impact it had on Indigenous children and their families.

[Beth Cue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodbye Buffalo Bay tells the important story of what it was like for an indigenous child to return home from residential school and no longer fit in. The writing, however, is not great and is dry. Character development and plot development is lacking.

[Pam Lovett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick YA read. Sad topic - residential school life in Alberta, Canada.