4 June 2024 by Heartdrum
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this very lyrical novel in verse, we meet Ariel and Tomah, who both face struggles in an Intertribal housing complex. Ariel, who lives with her baby brother Misko and mother who provides childcare for the community, are dealing with the fact that her Aunt Bineshiinh is missing. Tomah, who is bigger than many students his age, struggles with reading, and acts the role of class clown to get out of having to read aloud. His father, who works a security job, doesn't quite understand his son. Ariel loves taking ballet lessons, but money is too tight to continue them, and her mother encourages her to take up jingle dress dancing as a way to help her community heal, especially when her aunt's body is found. Tomah's learning disability is finally uncovered, and he is able to work with a teacher on coping strategies, but has a set back when a heart problem lands him in the hospital. When the community has its yearly pow wow, the children use it as an opportunity to contact their local representatives to highlight the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, symbolized by the empty red dress.
Strengths: This short novel packs an emotional punch, and sheds some light on the important topic of #MMIW. The supportive Intertribal community was something I hadn't read about. There is a great author note about city dwelling Indigenous people, and the apartment complex was a setting I had not seen before. Ariel and Tomah support each other, and also get help from older members in their community. This will be a very informative book for many middle grade readers.
Weaknesses: There were many of the pages that were filled with vertical lines of text (one word per line) instead of horizontal text that I found hard to read. I wonder if the arrangement of the lines was meant to mirror the difficulties that Tomah had reading. I could have used a longer book, with more information about many facets of the story, since it was so interesting.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed the portray of Indigenous culture in Day's We Still Belong or the role that music and dance play in Kim's Make a Move, Sunny Park!
E ARC Provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this very lyrical novel in verse, we meet Ariel and Tomah, who both face struggles in an Intertribal housing complex. Ariel, who lives with her baby brother Misko and mother who provides childcare for the community, are dealing with the fact that her Aunt Bineshiinh is missing. Tomah, who is bigger than many students his age, struggles with reading, and acts the role of class clown to get out of having to read aloud. His father, who works a security job, doesn't quite understand his son. Ariel loves taking ballet lessons, but money is too tight to continue them, and her mother encourages her to take up jingle dress dancing as a way to help her community heal, especially when her aunt's body is found. Tomah's learning disability is finally uncovered, and he is able to work with a teacher on coping strategies, but has a set back when a heart problem lands him in the hospital. When the community has its yearly pow wow, the children use it as an opportunity to contact their local representatives to highlight the plight of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, symbolized by the empty red dress.
Strengths: This short novel packs an emotional punch, and sheds some light on the important topic of #MMIW. The supportive Intertribal community was something I hadn't read about. There is a great author note about city dwelling Indigenous people, and the apartment complex was a setting I had not seen before. Ariel and Tomah support each other, and also get help from older members in their community. This will be a very informative book for many middle grade readers.
Weaknesses: There were many of the pages that were filled with vertical lines of text (one word per line) instead of horizontal text that I found hard to read. I wonder if the arrangement of the lines was meant to mirror the difficulties that Tomah had reading. I could have used a longer book, with more information about many facets of the story, since it was so interesting.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed the portray of Indigenous culture in Day's We Still Belong or the role that music and dance play in Kim's Make a Move, Sunny Park!
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