Publication date: June 8, 2021
My Thoughts:
Poet Joseph Bruchac writes a timely, spiritual novel in verse about a young girl who is sent to visit her grandparents on the Wabanaki reservation. When the COVID-19 pandemic starts shutting down travel around the country, she stays with her grandparents to take care of them, while the rest of her family stays in Boston.
While on the reservation, Malian is adopted by a large local dog, Malsum, who also protects Mailian and her grandparents. Malsum is exactly what this young girl needs and he quickly becomes an understanding friend and confidante.
This novel in verse was a gentle way to learn about Native American trauma while still keeping compassionate action in the forefront. I also really gravitated toward Malsum who seemed intelligent and immortal. As a young girl who also spent a lot of summers being raised by my grandparents on another island, I loved the idea of a dog who comes and stays with families and children who need him.
The relationship Malian has with her grandparents, as well as the love that her parents show to her for doing this for her grandparents just broke my heart, not because it was sad, but because I would love to get that kind of time back with my own grandparents. I loved to sit at the table or help them in the garden and just listen to stories about my parents, my aunts, uncles, other elders. I do not have the same relationship with my own grandchildren that I had with my grandparents, but when they get a little older, I hope my children will send my grandkids to spend summers with us just by themselves. I would love to honor my grandparents by sharing their stories, their recipes, their love with my own grandkids. When we talk about seven generation work, I think sharing our elder knowledge through our stories is the foundation for seven generation work. This book just brings that responsibility back for me.
From the Publishers:
From the U.S.'s foremost indigenous children's author comes a middle grade verse novel set during the COVID-19 pandemic, about a Wabanaki girl's quarantine on her grandparents' reservation and the local dog that becomes her best friend
Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation. She’s there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There’s a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration.
Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family and community safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn’t go outside to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too.
Told in verse inspired by oral storytelling, this novel about the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the ways Malian’s community has cared for one another through plagues of the past, and how they keep caring for one another today.
Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation. She’s there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There’s a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration.
Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family and community safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn’t go outside to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too.
Told in verse inspired by oral storytelling, this novel about the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the ways Malian’s community has cared for one another through plagues of the past, and how they keep caring for one another today.
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