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5 comments about It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl.

1. Charleen Touchette's story "The Pie Religion" is online in the May issue of Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
   
   "What a loving, touching article! I could see, smell, hear everything, thanks to your beautiful descriptions. And what memories of my own childhood you brought back; we, too, had a pie religion among the women in our large family. My mother even had a modest business of making pies for the restaurants and the hotel in our little Northern Vermont town.
   Indeed, the secret to pie-making is passed on from mother to daughter to daughter as a sacred tradition.
   Thanks for a great read!
   I've recommended your article to several people, with my comment that if I could write as well as you, I'd give up quilting and stitching...and making pies!"
   Louise Dubrule



2. An autobiography of a spunky Franco-American woman from Woonsocket, Rhode Island gives cultural storytelling multi-generational appeal. Too many Franco-Americans (with ancestral roots in French-Canada) are quickly amalgamating into the mainstream of American culture without writing their special family stories. Fortunately, Charleen Touchette, a Woonsocket, Rhode Island writer and artist now living in New Mexico, puts both of her pleasingly creative talents together in "It Stops With Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl".
   Touchette writes about her Franco-American roots by relating simple, often bittersweet and even brutal experiences growing up as a typical French Catholic girl in Woonsocket and later as an accomplished artist.
   Moreover, Touchette energizes her autobiography's prose with a series of original black, and white and color print blocks. In other words, "It Stops With Me" expresses Touchette's Franco-American creativity using prose accentuated by her surprisingly cutting edge original art describing absorbing coming of age experiences. Her journey from a parochial Franco-American into her adult life is fraught with opportunities, along with unexpected harsh challenges. Her life is ordinary in some ways but hardly a nostalgic cake walk.
   "It Stops With Me" is at its best when Touchette looks back and elevates normal Franco-American experiences to familiarities we can identify with. For example, she describes cooking with her "Ma Tantes" or getting ready to receive First Holy Communion at Woonsocket's Eglise Précieux-Sang (Church of Precious Blood).
   Discord arises at a young age. Growing up as a French Roman Catholic girl is an underlying theme. Touchette's typical childhood is without the benefit of feeling safe at home, as she depicts in one of her portraits of a "Not a Picture Perfect Family".
   Rather, Touchette's absorbing life story endures familial stress, social and personal conflicts, even leading to physical ailments, which haunt her into adult years.
   Touchette's hard hitting narrative is set apart from others of the modern autobiographic genre by the intimate and complicated relationships she shares with her family. Delving even deeper into her private spiral are the intense personal investigations Touchette undertakes with regard to her sad relationship with her father.
   Nevertheless, in spite of the particular circumstances, it's typical of Franco-Americans to harbor deep attachments for their relatives and parents regardless of obvious flaws, shortcomings or even family violence. Female family role models are especially strong in Touchette's life. "Although my Maman was a devout Catholic, she was a strong supporter of my right to freedom of expression," writes Touchette. In fact, her female relatives were outraged when Touchette even considered not going to college after high school. In her Woonsocket Franco-Americans world, Touchette writes about how curious it was to be singled out for college when no other woman in her family ever went beyond a high school education.
   Throughout the autobiography, her French heritage is front and center, even when she embraces the peace of Judaism.
   Many of the book's chapters are charmingly led by simple French titles.
   Touchette's talent as a creative writer moves the reader beyond the dark side of her autobiography. Using the power of words, she inspires us to learn more about her as an individual woman with a spellbinding story to tell. Touchette does a good job explaining the pros and cons of the personal contrasts she inherited from her religious and ethnic roots. This is a well written autobiography, nominated for book awards, with a progressive social focus.



3. Reviewer Jennifer Lefkowitz chose "It Stops with Me" as the Book Special for "Girlfriends Magazine" November 2005 issue, p. 58 with two color photos of Touchette's art.
   
   "It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Cannuck Girl"
   
   "Charleen Touchette's memoir is healing and cathartic, a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse. The author is an artist, and throughout the book she showcases her paintings, which resemble the work of painter Frida Kahlo. Like Kahlo, Touchette survived vehicle collisions; after a spine injury she is able to connect her past to her present. This compelling memoir dives into the dark trenches of that past, confronting memories with ancient practices. "I learned it is the task of all human beings to cut through the fog and illusion of maya, and reconnect with the light." A - Jennifer Lefkowitz
   
   "Water Illumination" (top) and "Boom Boom Boom" are two of the many paintings which illustrate the author's journey."



4. December 14, 2005
   
   Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees
   Diane Rivers, Chair
   Dorian Parker, Vice-Chair
   Lisa Sparks, Secretary
   John Pellizzari
   Ernest "Buddy" DiSpirito
   303 Clinton Street
   Woonsocket, RI 02895-3214
   Fax: 401-767-4140
   
   Dear Members of the Woonsocket Harris Public Library Board of Trustees,
   
   On behalf of the 2,900 members of PEN American Center, an international organization of writers dedicated to protecting freedom of expression wherever it is threatened, we are writing to express our deep concern over the fact that the Woonsocket Public Library Trustees are considering a request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl written by native Woonsocket author-artist Charleen Touchette.
   
   We understand that a citizen request to ban the book was made at the Library Trustees' September meeting. The Library Trustees removed the book from the Woonsocket Harris Public Library shelves after the September meeting pending a decision.
   
   It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl, the latest work by author-artist Charleen Touchette, invites you into the provincial world of a French Canadian girl in Rhode Island who cannot tell anybody her family secrets. Years later when she has her first daughter she must relive her childhood to heal the future generations of her family. It is a story of survival and triumph as a victim of childhood abuse and was written for an adult audience. The novel tells a realistic story with complex figures. Such books help readers approach sensitive topics and figure out how to deal with them. Even if the novel's themes are too mature for some, they will be meaningful to others. No book is right for everyone, and the role of the library is to allow community members to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values.
   
   Author Charleen Touchette, a member of our colleague organizations PEN USA and the Author's Guild, advocates for the freedom to write worldwide. It Stops with Me has been praised by authors Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Randall, Ana Pacheco, and Winona LaDuke, and received a Foreword Book of the Year 2004 Finalist Award.
   
   PEN American Center respectfully asks you to deny the request to ban It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl and to return it to library shelves. By doing so, you will be upholding a fundamental principle of freedom: the right of all Americans to read, inquire, question, and think for themselves.
   
   Thank you for your attention to this matter.
   
   Sincerely,
   
   Hannah Pakula
   
   Larry Siems
   Chair, Freedom to Write Committee Director, Freedom to Write
   and International Programs



5. "This book is incredible." Louise Erdrich
   "beautiful book." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
   "Tough, evocative, border-crossing, honest, unflinching...large enough so it can embrace its readers. Margaret Randall, Author. PEN NM Lifetime Achievement Awardee 2005
   "An emotion-charged story of initial struggle and ultimate success...a must in any library collection." Book Wire
   "magnificent in its courage and decency." Sam Ballen Author Without Reservations.
   
   Great Reads - New Mexico Magazine, April 2005 p. 45.
   Personal Journeys: More Than Just Survival by Michelle Miller Allen
   "Our girlhood years, formed in various cultures and family configurations-from the most abusive to the most loving-and tempered by the social prejudices and taboos of one's time-are where we begin our journeys into adulthood. These factors have much to do with whether we will just survive or become empowered by the most demanding, even devastating, events on our individual paths.
   It Stops with Me: Memoir of a Canuck Girl by Charleen Touchette (TouchArt Books 2004) Touchette's memoir opens the doors into the lives of women who shaped her childhood into adulthood-the healers, storytellers, homemakers, and artists. This most compelling book includes fascinating color and black and white reproductions of the author's artwork over three decades. The book charts Touchette's journey from a French Canadian/RhodeIsland childhood at the hands of an abusive alcoholic father, to Wellesley College, to New York City's culture of arts, to Minnesota and Indian Country.
   Touchette combines the voice of the reminiscing adult writer/artist with that of a child obsessed with "making things" as a survival mechanism. Abusive parents seem to bank on the false assumption that their children, as adults, will not remember abuse. Yet anyone who doubts the intelligence and level of awareness in a young, abused human being should read the end of Chapter "Forsythia Blossoms": "I do not know when I started fighting back. I do not have a memory of when Daddy started hitting me. I was too young. But I do remember clearly the moment when I looked up at my dad's face, and realized he was a fool. I was seven."

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1 comments about The Old Man Told Us.

1. Well oreganized and easy to read. Being of micmac heritage, I was able to really enjoy the old stories and visit the old places and hear the old voices. Excellant research efforts by authors. This is one of those books I plan on passing along to my kids! Lionel Little Eagle 3/1/99

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1 comments about ARCTIC MEMORIES: Living with the Inuit (Travel Writing).

1. For over thirty years, Canadian photojournalist Fred Bruemmer has lived with and photographed the Arctic peoples of North America, and in this book he draws on his numerous experiences to fashion poignant and moving memoir of his life in the North and the many people who he has met. This is a book that for someone like myself, who has a limited understanding of this region, will give them new understanding and deeper insight into its past and the lives of the peoples who have inhabited it for countless generations.

5 comments about Stolen Life: Journey Of A Cree Woman.

1. Tansi,

   I come from a small reserve in northern Manitoba. What I read in "Journey of a Cree Woman" was unbelievable. I cannot believe how many hardships this woman had to go through, and yet she still continues on. This book really opened my eyes as to what other women go through . This book touched my heart and many times I got shivers down my back. This book is an awesome book, that I recommend especially for women. There are many good things I could say about this book, but there is a limit. I commend Rudy on his awesome work and continuied support with Yvonne. I commend Yvonne for sharing her story with us as it is not easy to tell a story that is nothing but the truth!




2. I have actually just begun to read the book as I became interested in this particular book very recently -- my family grew up in the same neighborhood as Yvonne Johnson and I felt compelled to read the book. I recall certain incidents from childhood such as her father on the front porch lining up all the children &(drunk) screaming "Indians on the Warpath" and one time grabbing my own sister off her bike, throwing her down (mistaking her for Yvonne) and then having to apologize profusely (he was drunk that time also)to my family. I recall her oldest brother dying while in the county jail, how my mother had him at times mow our lawns & we recalled how sad that time was, how the youngest, Perry, looked like a female with the long flowing hair (he had the lightest coloring), the girls Karen, Sharon, Kathy, Yvonne, how the Mother drove truck--the hard-scrabble life they led--I am sure it took a tremendous amount of courage to write this book, I recalled how she struggled with her speech, etc and how people could be mean to her.



3. I just finished the book about Yvonne and her hardships. I read it in Norwegian, but that did not diminish the affect it had on me. It's unbelievable what some people have to go through, without anyone doing something about it. And then actually surviving it all, amazing!
   She said it herself in the book that people who have been through hard experiences easier can understand what others have to struggle with. And being as she is a Medicine Woman it is in her blood to try and help, wherever possible.
   It is also a startling report on how the Natives are still treated in both America and Canada. One can only hope that books like this can help open at least a few peoples eyes...



4. It's a shame when we put our criminals up on pedestals like this, especially with a murder so cold-blooded and senseless. That anyone can profit financially from such a heinous crime is deplorable and tells us something significant about our culture.
   
   As to the questions of injustice, it's not pointed out very often that Ms.Johnson was not the only native involved in this crime. Her co-conspirators were also native, as was the victim Leonard Charles Skwarok. Where then can we point the finger of racism?
   
   I personally did not find this book very poetic at all. Its narrative is uselessly disjointed, its grammar is often clumsy, and its poetic devices nearly non-existent. While Ms.Johnson writes most of the book in first person, the crucial chapters detailing the murder are written in third person. Is this because Ms.Johnson can't clearly remember what happened that night because she was drunk at the time, or because she wishes to detach herself from the incident, and have us see her more as an observer than as a participant? In any case, it's a clever device designed to separate the criminal from the crime. I for one don't buy it.



5. I chose this book to read for a review assignment, and I must say, I'm glad I chose it. It is the life-story of a woman, the hardships she had to face throughout her life, as seen through her eyes. The book also shows how the judicial system, which we often view as having distinct boundaries, and as having the final hand in society, cannot ultimately be seen as such. While others may view Yvonne Johnson as a "cold-blooded criminal" and her subsequent novel as a "commercial enterprise", it is rather that this book is simply a means for her to have her voice heard, in a world that has silenced her for so long. We all want to have our voices heard, we all want to find our strengths. This book is how she found hers.

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