 | Where wolves don't die Author: Treuer, Anton | |
| Price: $10.65 | ||
Summary:
Ezra Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there. But Ezra hates the dirty, polluted snow around them. And he hates the local bully in his neighborhood, Matt Schroeder, who terrorizes Ezra and his friend Nora George. Ezra gets into a terrible fight with Matt at school defending Nora, and that same night, Matt's house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect.
Reviews:
School Library Journal (+) (00/07/24)
Booklist (+) (05/01/24)
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (00/07/24)
The Hornbook (00/07/24)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 05/01/2024 *Starred Review* Treuer (Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask, 2021) immerses the reader in Ojibwe culture in this suspenseful novel of wilderness survival. At school in Northeast Minneapolis, Ezra tolerates Matt’s bullying. But when Matt targets his friend Nora, Ezra snaps back. That very night, Matt’s house goes up in flames. To shelter Ezra from a potentially racist police investigation, his father sends him deep into their Canadian tribal lands to work the trap lines with Grandpa Liam for the second half of ninth grade. Ezra welcomes the distance from his father, whom he blames for his mother’s recent death from leukemia. And Ezra is excited to share his grandpa’s small hunting cabin, learn the sacred ways of the harvest, and navigate a Ski-Doo around the isolated lakes and forests north of the Minnesota-Ontario border. Visits to their Nigigoonsiminikaaning community on the rez give Ezra a chance to Zoom with his teachers and text with Nora. The details and pure physicality of running the lines are vivid and fascinating, and Grandpa Liam is a character for the ages, filled with love, knowledge, and humor. The pace accelerates when treacherous terrain, threatening wildlife, family secrets, and Matt’s vow of revenge spill into an extended fight for survival. Ezra’s growth—in strength, skill, responsibility, and empathy—is hard-won. An essential illumination of contemporary Indigenous life. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.
