Borders

Thomas King

Sep 2021 · Sold by Little, Brown Ink

About this ebook

A People Magazine Best Book

From celebrated Indigenous author Thomas King and award-winning Métis artist Natasha Donovan comes a powerful graphic novel about a family caught between nations.

Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other. 

Borders explores nationhood from an Indigenous perspective and resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice, and belonging.

Ratings and reviews

4 stars — *snort* I don’t think I realized this was a children’s graphic novel, and then I’m thinking “wow, this is reading really fast.” Not that it matters, I can read children’s books if I want to…it just amused me. I really enjoyed that it told a story that was fraught with a lot of different issues, but from the boy’s POV, so it was mixed with normal kid thoughts — like how he often focused on food and treats and the fun aspects of a road trip. But you could still see his concern for his family as he remembered the past events of his sister leaving, and the struggle between his Mom and his sister. And then there’s the whole bit about citizenship. I think that’s something very hard for me as a white adult to fully embrace and understand. I don’t know what it is to feel like these things of my identity are taken away and I should fight for it. I don’t know what it is to have something that important that it is worth being stubborn about. A tiny part of me was still stuck thinking, what was the point? And I guess that’s kind of why it would be nice for this generation’s children to grow up reading books like this so they can question things earlier…and hopefully understand people who are different from you better — better than me. Which is not to say that I thought her resistance was silly, it’s just hard to get those nuances you know? Not sure if I’m making sense. ANYWAYS. As someone without children, I have NO IDEA about how a child would enjoy it. But the artistry is beautiful, in general the concepts are clear and straightforward, but provoke thought. And the little boy is easy to connect with.

About the author

Thomas King has written several highly acclaimed children's books including A Coyote Solstice Tale (illustrated by Gary Clement) which won the American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book and A Coyote Columbus Story (illustrated by Kent Monkman) which was a Governor General's Award finalist. King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent and was born in California, was chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota before moving to University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He recently won a Governor General's Award for his adult novel, The Back of the Turtle; he won both the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian.

Natasha Donovan is a Métis illustrator with a focus on comics and children's illustration. She has illustrated several award-winning children's books including The Sockeye Mother by Brett Huson and the graphic novel Surviving the City by Tasha Spillett-Sumner. She has a degree in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, and has worked in academic and magazine publishing. She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington.