Shayla Stonechild, championing A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, wins Canada Reads 2025
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After a few days of fierce and thoughtful debates, Shayla Stonechild has won Canada Reads 2025. The book she championed, A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer, survived the elimination vote on March 20, 2025.
Podcaster and wellness advocate Stonechild successfully argued that A Two-Spirit Journey best fits the theme as "one book to change the narrative."
In A Two-Spirit Journey, Ma-Nee Chacaby, an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian who grew up in a remote northern Ontario community, tells the story of how she overcame experiences with abuse and alcohol addiction to become a counsellor and lead Thunder Bay's first gay pride parade.
"This story is not only about trauma and suffering, it is about unconditional love," said Stonechild during the Day Three debates.
"Whether that's within two-spirit relationships, whether that's being of service to other people or whether that's just the love for telling your own story and speaking your own truth, Ma-Nee inspires you to take action and agency in your own life and to be an advocate for others, but also to be an advocate to love yourself a little bit deeper."
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew was the runner-up. Pastry chef Saïd M'Dahoma championed the moving novel.
Dandelion is a novel about family secrets, migration, isolation, motherhood and mental illness. When Lily was a child, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family and was never heard from again. After becoming a new mother herself, Lily is obsessed with discovering what happened to Swee Hua.
She recalls growing up in a British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families and how Swee Hua longed to return to Brunei. Eventually, a clue leads Lily to southeast Asia to find out the truth about her mother.
Ultimately, Dandelion lost to A Two-Spirit Journey in a 3-2 vote on the final day.
Canada Reads 2025:
Linwood Barclay and Shayla Stonechild discuss memoirs
3 days ago
Duration 3:01
Stonechild is a Red River Métis and Nehiyaw iskwew (Plains Cree woman) from Muscowpetung First Nations. She founded the Matriarch Movement, an online platform, podcast and nonprofit that amplifies Indigenous voices and provides wellness opportunities for Indigenous women and two-spirit individuals.
She is also a global yoga ambassador for Lululemon and is the first Indigenous person featured on Yoga Journal's cover. Stonechild has hosted APTN's Red Earth Uncovered, appeared on Season 9 of Amazing Race Canada and co-hosted ET Canada's Artists & Icons: Indigenous Entertainers in Canada for which she won two Canadian Screen Awards.
The 2025 Canada Reads winner brought a strong and well-researched perspective to the debates, both making a strong case for the A Two-Spirit Journey and acknowledging the merits of the other books in contention.
Chacaby is a two-spirit Ojibwa-Cree writer, artist, storyteller and activist. She lives in Thunder Bay, Ont., and was raised by her grandmother near Lake Nipigon, Ont. Chacaby won the Ontario Historical Society's Alison Prentice Award and the Oral History Association's Book Award for A Two-Spirit Journey.
In 2021, Chacaby won the Community Hero Award from the mayor of Thunder Bay.
Her co-writer and close friend, Plummer, is a social scientist whose work focuses on public health and children's rights. She collaborated with Chacaby, who only learned English later in life and is visually impaired, to tell Chacaby's story in the most authentic possible way, drawing on academic research about Indigenous storytelling and years of friendship and mutual trust.
The other three books were eliminated earlier in the week. Thriller novel Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey, championed by Maggie Mac Neil, was eliminated on Day One. The memoir Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston, defended by Linwood Barclay, was eliminated on Day Two. Novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper, championed by Michelle Morgan, was eliminated on Day Three.
This year's show was hosted by Ali Hassan. The contenders and their chosen books were:
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