Joshua is a sixteen year old Cree boy whose biological mother was a member of the Lake St. Martin First Nation in Manitoba. When his mother died by his side when he was twelve, he asked, after a while, to go and live with someone he knew from years before. Even though this person had been treated badly by his family and their friends, he chose her as his mother. It was because he saw that she had always treated everyone with kindness - no matter how she had been treated. Joshua and his new mother do many things together to help others. They worked on this book together. His oral storytelling of his life begged for a form that wasn't as rigid as some of the other stories he wrote about his life. Joshua has grown to love the cadence of poetry as it more aptly depicts the rhythm in his head as he talks about his experiences both on and off the reserve, in and out of the hood, and in and out of foster care. Born to thrive not just survive, Joshua shows this through his smile, his care for others and his desire to use all forms of storytelling to help other people overcome.
