Image: Macmillan Publishers
Happy Tuesday! We are you coping with lots of thunderstorms on and off for the past week. The skies go from partly cloudy to ominously cloudy quickly and so, I've had to be judicious with Boo's long walks.
Teen Tuesday features Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley. This is a stand-alone companion to Ms. Boulley's debut, The Firekeeper's Daughter, which takes place ten years earlier. Pauline Firekeeper-Birch, the chill-twin, is looking forward to a summer of fishing on her beloved Sugar Island in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, while her anxiety-prone, academically oriented twin, Pauline, works as an intern at Tribal Counsel. Unfortunately, she wrecks the Jeep she shares with the family and her Aunt Daunis paid for the repairs, expecting Perry to pay her back. So Perry becomes a reluctant intern to Cooper Turtle, curator of the Tribal Museum, who is involved in negotiations with the local college to return tribal artifacts under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The red tape and slowness of the process infurates Pauline, and so, she takes matters into her own hands and removes seeds from the college store-room. Cooper Turtle no longer trusts her and releases her from her internship, leaving Perry to scramble to find another mentor. Meanwhile, several women in the community have gone missing and there have been deaths of Black people at the hands of the police, leaving Perry worried for her Black father's safety and further fueling her fight for social justice.
Native tradition, culture and history are woven seamlessly into what becomes a suspenseful heist story. Perry's first-person narration is snarky, intelligent and hilarious at times as she lives up to her nickname, "Perry Pulls No Punches." The Sugar Island setting is vividly drawn as are supporting characters. Blunt language, references to sexual assault, blackmail and violence make this compelling story more suitable to thoughtful, mature teen readers.
Warrior Girl Unearthed was just named a Boston Globe Horn Book Award Winner in the Fiction and Poetry category. I read this one with my ears and appreciated hearing the correct pronunciation of the language. New-to-me narrator Isabella Star LaBlanc brought Perry to life and paced her performance well. Happy reading!
Native tradition, culture and history are woven seamlessly into what becomes a suspenseful heist story. Perry's first-person narration is snarky, intelligent and hilarious at times as she lives up to her nickname, "Perry Pulls No Punches." The Sugar Island setting is vividly drawn as are supporting characters. Blunt language, references to sexual assault, blackmail and violence make this compelling story more suitable to thoughtful, mature teen readers.
Warrior Girl Unearthed was just named a Boston Globe Horn Book Award Winner in the Fiction and Poetry category. I read this one with my ears and appreciated hearing the correct pronunciation of the language. New-to-me narrator Isabella Star LaBlanc brought Perry to life and paced her performance well. Happy reading!
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