The best books are the ones that teach us something important, and authors writing in the Young Adult genre excel at tackling complicated and serious issues in an accessible way. Angeline Boulley does it again with her third thriller, Sisters in the Wind set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
In her first novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, Boulley used her characters to introduce the reader to the Indigenous tribe Ojibwe’s language and culture. Warrior Girl Unearthed, Boulley’s second novel, returns to this world 10 years later and uses mystery to describe how many indigenous artifacts were illegally acquired historically. I will never look at museum collections quite the same! (Book Whisperer introduces Boulley)
Sisters in the Wind is set in the years between the first and second novels, and the reader experiences the Michigan foster care system through the lens of the main character, Lucy Smith.
Lucy has spent the last six months running from her past when a handsome Native guy visits her in the diner where she works. She is suspicious and has reason to be after spending five years in foster care. When he offers to help her reunite with her Ojibwe family, she rejects him. Her deceased father said she was Italian! Later in the week, Lucy is badly hurt in an explosion, and when she wakes up in the hospital, the Native guy and an unfamiliar young woman are at her bedside, offering to help her get back on her feet.
Sisters in the Wind is a dual timeline mystery thriller. Young Adult does not mean “easy read,” and my heart broke reading this story. Boulley’s characters reflect the difficult lives Native American young women live. In particular, the story uses the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law passed in 1978 to keep more Native children in their tribal communities. The ICWA recognizes that Native children benefit from connections with their culture and family and prioritizes such placements. That was not always the case.
You may cry. I did. You may want to turn the pages faster or increase the audiobook speed. I definitely did!
These novels are excellent in audiobook. Isabella Star LaBlanc narrates all three Firekeeper books and is a citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota tribal nation.
Visit the library or an independent bookstore or search the Knox County Online Library for more books like Sisters in the Wind.
Look for these recommendations and other books at Knox County Online Library or your local independent bookstore each week.
Linda Sullivan is an avid reader and wants to inspire you to become one, too. For more recommendations or to talk books, reach out to her at thebookwhisperertn@gmail.com. She can also be found @thebookwhisperertn on Instagram.
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