Elatsoe

 

Rating: 4 add this to your classroom library of Native American stories by Native American authors.

My Thoughts:

November is Native American Heritage Month, so start early to find or add books to your classroom for next fall. In 2015, data from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) indicated that there were about 20 books written or illustrated by American Indians. In 2018, Indigenous creators made up about 1.4% of all YA authors. In 2023, it rose to 2.4%. In 2024, CCBC counted 102 books by Indigenous authors/creators, aggregated between Canadian First Nation authors/illustrators and Native American authors/illustrators. When the numbers are so small, it is good to read both, but this author, Dr. Darcie Little Badger is a Native American, Lipan Apache writer with her PhD in oceanography.  Ellie's foray into the underworld ancestral sea was a fascinating way for Ellie to really get to know her ancestral gift and the ways that this knowledge might help her later on in the book. 

The fact that Dr. Little Badger is American is significant for middle and secondary teachers looking to diversify their 'literature closets' by replacing of supplementing copies of  Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I have been in enough public and private school classrooms in Hawai'i to know that there are still class sets of Island in literature closets.  Books like this and other #ownvoices literature by Native authors might replace or supplement Island. Bringing in something like Elatsoe could balance out, or avoid reinforcing the stereotypes, tropes and historical inaccuracy found in O'Dell's work. If you want to read more about the analysis and critique of Island -- in case you need to answer to school boards, administrators, parents, other stakeholders --  get your fuel from the article "A critical look at O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Dr. Debbie Reese, a Nambé Pueblo scholar and founder of the blog site American Indians In Children's Literature. 

As far as the story, I found a video of the author that does a much better job in selling this book. The only other two things I want to say are that:

1.  This is book one of a duology.
2. I wish I had the power to be protected by my own ghost dog. 

My childhood dog was a goofy doberman/German shepherd mutt named Squirt who was clumsy and hilarious, but also loyal and kind. 

From the Publisher:

Elatsoe―Ellie for short―lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals―most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered.

Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?

The breathtaking debut novel from Darcie Little Badger features an asexual, Apache teen protagonist―and combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, and fantasy elements, in one of the most-talked-about books in years.

Publication Information:

Author                 Darcie Little Badger

Illustrator           Rovina Cai

Publisher            Levine Querido (August 25, 2020)

Print length        368 pages

Grade level         7-12

Ladders and Bridges:

Key First Nation (Canadian) YA Authors:

• Wab Kinew: Walking in Two Worlds
• Cherie Dimaline: The Marrow Thieves, Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
• This Place: 150 Years Retold is a collective of First Nation authors/illustrators who explore the past and future through a native perspective in graphic form. 
• Jen Ferguson: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

Key American Native YA Authors:

• Cynthia Leitich Smith: Hearts Unbroken founder of the Heartdrum imprint, editor of the fabulous anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In (includes authors on this list)
• Darcie Little Badger: Sheine Lende (book 2), Snake Falls to Earth 
• Angeline Boulley: Firekeeper's Daughter, Warrior Girl Unearthed
• Byron Graves: Rez Ball
• Andrea L. Rogers: Man Made Monsters (Elatsoe for older readers who are ready for "the horror")

Songs for Ghosts: A. Novel

 

Rating: 4 because it is complex and difficult to label

My Thoughts:

This was a complex story because I could not find the right label or genre for this. What was it? How do I describe it? Sometimes it is just a mystery. But it is also a ghost story. It is a family story, but like any good mystery, I am not sure how things connect, and when connections revealed itself in the story, I was just as surprised as the character. So it is also about not just one, but two unreliable narrators. It is about loss, tragedy, young love, mature love, mother's love, child's love, betrayal. It is a "play within a play" of sorts. It is about ghosts amongst us. It is about music. It is about being lost in translation. It is about queer love as well as mixed race love. It is about forbidden love. It is about two cultures. It is about being hapa and in multiple worlds and cultures at once, much like the author. Young readers can glom onto any of the different labels based on what they need from this novel. 

Perhaps in the end, for me, this is a story about remembering. I think I will go to the graveyard this weekend to visit some ancestors.

From the Publisher:

When Adam discovers a diary in his attic, he is enthralled by its account of a young woman's life in Nagasaki. A hundred years separate them, yet like Adam, she is caught between cultures, relationships, and heartbreak.

She also writes of the ghosts that have begun to seek her out, which Adam dismisses as fantasy—until he begins to be haunted by her terrifying spirit. Unravelling the mystery of her identity—and the wrong done to her—seems to be the only way to save himself.

This leads Adam to a home stay in Nagasaki, where he begins to reconnect to his heritage not only through Japanese language and culture, but also by connecting with long-lost family members. And then begins a race against time as Adam and his new crush, Jo, attempt to untangle a story that has rippled through generations . .

Publication Information:

Author: Clara Kumagai

Publisher: Amulet Books (August 12, 2025)

Print length: 400 pages

Mushishi Collector's Edition Volume 1

 

Rating: 4 for Studio Ghibli level creativity and atmospheric wonder

My Thoughts:

This collection of stories/manga is so novel to the kinds of stories that I know that it is difficult to really explain what this is about. Although I did not know this before hand, I found that this is a collector's item piece because of the limited publication exposure the original series  has gotten outside of Japan. 

Basically, these are short stories as the main character, Ginko, a mushishi, or mushi expert, travels around the countryside to track down unusual, strange happenings and behaviors. Most times these happenings, even in the way that people change are tracked down to the influence of mushi, these small nature spirits with sprite like beings who can be harmless, but also vicious and naughty at the same time. 

The artwork is beautiful in the best manga style and although I got this as a ebook from NetGalley, this is one that I am going to order as a hardcover just to hold on to it. 

I describe this as Studio Ghibli level creativity mainly because there is a good balance of mystery, innocence and spookiness. Also the mushi remind me of those living dust bunnies in My Neighbor Totoro. 

From the Publisher:

Though invisible to most, tiny creatures known as mushi lurk beneath the surface of everyday reality. They exert a strange and occasionally terrifying influence on people's lives, and only experts known as mushishi carry the knowledge of how to deal with them. A mushishi named Ginko wanders the Japanese countryside, following rumors of various unusual occurences: a young man who dreams the future; a child with horns growing from his forehead; a boy with the power to write creatures into being; and more...

Publication Information:

Author/artist: Yuki Urushibara

Publisher: Kodansha (November 4, 2025)

Print length: 464 pages

Rivers of London: Deadly Ever After (Graphic Novel)

 My Thought:

First, this is such a beautiful, old-timey, intriguing cover. The art style is like the comic books I remember. reading when I was young.  This story is part of a series of supernatural detectives who police the world/universe/time continuum? This is the first book I read in this adaptation series, so the main characters of this series do not show up as key components of this particular story, however, it seems like the characters are in the present, but also have been around for centuries. 

This story is about two sisters, Olympia and Chelsea. Although they are daughters of the river goddess, Mama Thames, they are not the crime fighters. In fact, it seems like others expect them to screw up, so they are trying to clean up their mess and the fallout from their mess. Their "mess" actually starts when the sisters are "camping" and reveal a magical tree to another camper. That break in magic starts a series of odd transformations in the other campers who live out fairy tales in real life.

It takes two foxes who are witness to the human shenanigans to then find the sisters in the city and get them to reach out for help and then fix their own mess.

I was able to finish this on the plane home (40 minutes) so this series will appeal to comic book readers who like the idea of a mystery series that finishes at the end of each installment. 

From the Publisher:

Illustrations from a mysterious book of fairy tales drawn in the late 1800s are coming to life in the 21st Century and causing havoc. The illustrations were originally painted by a Victorian artist called Jeter Day who disappeared one night in an enchanted forest when he was spirited away by tree nymphs never to be seen again…

Now, with the enchantment accidentally broken by Olympia and Chelsea, daughters of the river goddess Mama Thames, Jeter, twisted by his time spent with the nymphs, has returned to our world bitter and resentful. It is a world he neither recognises nor likes. All he wants is his life returned to him and woe betide any man who stands in his way.

With Peter and Nightingale busy on another case, it falls to sisters Olympia and Chelsea with the help of the Foxes to stop Jeter and save the day.

Publication information:

Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Illustrator: José-Maria Beroy

Publisher: Titan Comics (January 24, 2023)

Brightest Kind of Darkness, Book 1

From the Publisher:

Nara Collins is an average girl with one exception; every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate...until she dreams a future she can't ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.

My Thoughts:

As far as supernatural thrillers/YA romance/serial novels go, this is about 3 stars. It's intriguing enough to keep me reading, just perhaps not intriguing enough to look for/buy/wait for the rest of the books. Fast read, beach read. Just do not get too fussy about the whole Fate as a man thing (like I did). This book was free on Kindle, which I think is a steal. I just donʻt think I want to pay $2.99 for the prequel Ethan and book 2 Lucid. 

Empress of All Seasons

Publication date: November 6, 2018

Tags: fantasy, feudal Japan, supernatural, YA, adventure, romance, action

My thoughts:

Hooray for the new breed of Japanese female warriors cropping up in YA fantasy! They bring their culture and their collective ferocity and loyalty to a genre that sometimes makes the men weak in order to raise up the women. 

The two books that will introduce the YA/Fantasy audience to feudal Japanese, strong, female characters are Empress of all Seasons and Julie Kagawa's October release Shadow of the Fox.

I don't think their stories, although both fantasy, are similar in plot, however, the main characters have similar dispositions and the supernatural element as well as the time period is so similar that for a little while I felt like I had read this book before. 

Also, once the competition starts in the season rooms, things start feeling a bit like Catching Fire.

So yes, this book feels familiar, but it is a good familiar and I enjoyed the read. 

Description:

In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy. Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit.  As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast. Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.

An advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

Blood of Eden Series

What I like about this trilogy - main characters die. I just think if I am  invested in a story, then important people need to die otherwise it is not satisfying and I do not get the emotional impact needed to continue reading.

Check on the OMG factor. 

Finally, I like imperfect strong female main characters who do not act like men but can still kick ass.

Check on the Xena factor.