Description
This story is dedicated to the author's mother and father, both of whom are residential school survivors.
Told in the voice of a boy and his father by turns, this book takes a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the emotional toll of a child being taken from their family and community to attend residential school. While the child’s internal monologue expresses his fear, confusion, and loss, the father’s monologue conveys his own sadness, fears, and hopes for the future of his child. The narrative gives voice to the things left unsaid between a parent and child experiencing this heart-rending separation. Upon his return to his community, when father and son are reunited, they must start the long process of reconnection.
Based on the author’s family history of residential school separation, this book provides a unique perspective on the difficult cycle of loss, reconnection, and regaining hope for the future.
Author Bio
Nadia Sammurtok is an Inuit writer and educator originally from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Nadia is passionate about preserving the traditional Inuit lifestyle and Inuktitut language so that they may be enjoyed by future generations. Nadia currently lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, with her family.
Simji Park is from South Korea, and is now based in London, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. After she finished her study at the Royal College of Art, she started her professional illustration career in 2017. She was awarded first prize in children's illustration at the 2019 Faber Adlyn Prize. Simji creates illustrations with pencils and watercolour for children's books alongside digital animation. She loves drinking tea and wandering in the park. When not doing that, she produces illustrations and animations.
Prizes
- Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for ChildrenRunner-up 2025
Review Quotes
By focusing on the unspoken thoughts of a parent and a child, Nadia Sammurtok makes us see something a little different. The bond between a parent and a child is stretched and almost severed and yet there is hope that there is enough resilience to reunite and strengthen. Dad, I Miss You is a story of tragedy but also one of the capacity of family to reconnect and prevail.
Sammurtok, in a small number of pages, captures the ongoing harm and alienation Indigenous communities experience in Canada because of the residential school system. . . By focusing on the feelings of loss and longing in both parent and child, Sammurtok communicates the pain felt by many residential school survivors in a way that young readers can understand.
— Quill & QuireBiographical note
Nadia Sammurtok is an Inuit writer and educator originally from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Nadia is passionate about preserving the traditional Inuit lifestyle and Inuktitut language so that they may be enjoyed by future generations. Nadia currently lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, with her family.
Simji Park is from South Korea, and is now based in London, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. After she finished her study at the Royal College of Art, she started her professional illustration career in 2017. She was awarded first prize in children's illustration at the 2019 Faber Adlyn Prize. Simji creates illustrations with pencils and watercolour for children's books alongside digital animation. She loves drinking tea and wandering in the park. When not doing that, she produces illustrations and animations.
