Pemmican Wars: A Girl Called Echo, Vol. 1
By Katherena Vermette

In Pemmican Wars, the first part of Katherena Vermette’s new graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo, we are reminded what comics do best: tell a story through pictures. Illustrated by Scott B. Henderson and coloured by Donovan Yaciuk, it begins when Métis teenager Echo wakes up in Qu’Appelle Valley in 1814 at the height of the Pemmican Wars. She has begun to inexplicably slip back and forth through time, between her lonely life as a foster kid in Saskatchewan, and the sometimes joyful, sometimes difficult history of her people in that same territory. The carefully constructed panels and sparse, meaningful dialogue skillfully remind us the past is never truly in the past but constantly living with us in the present. A Girl Called Echo is a series to watch.

The Break

“In the end, all that matters is what is right here.” These words by Métis writer Katherena Vermette perfectly capture the heart of the stories within The Break. Vermette, who won the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, offers alternative perspectives surrounding a brutal crime—each point of view so raw, readers won’t be able to pull away from the story. Equal parts heartbreaking and beautiful, Vermette tells an important story audiences must hear. Amid all the pain felt through the characters’ remembered histories, there is a strong sense of survival: Vermette shows readers the true resilience of the human spirit within a family narrative.