Status
Available
Series
Publication
Puffin Canada (2021), 256 pages
Library's review
Two uprooted Cree children find themselves in a dreamlike adventure in this series opener.
The edginess 13-year-old Morgan feels runs deep. As a First Nations kid whose whole life has been lived in one White foster home after another, she feels little reason to get excited about anything. Two months
This middle-grade fantasy deftly and compellingly centers Indigenous culture. (Fantasy. 10-14)
-Kirkus Review
The edginess 13-year-old Morgan feels runs deep. As a First Nations kid whose whole life has been lived in one White foster home after another, she feels little reason to get excited about anything. Two months
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in to her new foster home placement, she inherits a new foster brother, Eli, a young Cree boy who spends his time quietly drawing in his sketchbook. After a blowup with their earnestly well-intentioned White foster parents, Morgan and Eli shelter themselves in the attic, where a drawing in his pad seems to come to life, creating a portal into the wintry Barren Grounds of Misewa, where the passage of time is, Narnia-like, different from in Winnipeg. After Eli disappears into this world, Morgan is determined to go after him to bring him back. When she finds him, they discover that the Misewa community of animal beings needs their help to survive the White Time. Robertson (Norway House Cree Nation) carefully establishes Morgan’s anger and feelings of alienation, her resentment at their foster parents’ clumsy attempts to connect her to her culture culminating when they awkwardly present a gift of moccasins. The shift into a contemporary Indigenous fantasy is seamless; it is in this world that these foster siblings discover hope and meaning that sustain them when they return to Winnipeg.This middle-grade fantasy deftly and compellingly centers Indigenous culture. (Fantasy. 10-14)
-Kirkus Review
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Awards
Great Stone Face Book Award (Nominee — 2022)
Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Junior — 2023)
South Dakota Children's Book Awards (Nominee — 2023)
USBBY Outstanding International Book (Grades 6-8 — 2021)
Silver Birch Fiction Award (Nominee — 2021)
Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award (Shortlist — English Fiction — 2022)
Flicker Tale Award (Nominee — Middle Readers — 2022)
Red Cedar Book Award (Nominee — Fiction — 2022)
The Willow Awards (Finalist — 2021)
TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (Finalist — 2021)
IODE Violet Downey Book Award (Finalist — 2021)
Rocky Mountain Book Award (Nominee — 2022)
Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award (Honor Book — 2022)
NPR: Books We Love (2020)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2022)
Nerdy Book Award (Middle Grade Fiction — 2020)
El día de los niños / El día de los libros (6-8 — 2021)
Texas Lone Star Reading List (2021)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020
ISBN
0735266123 / 9780735266124