Speculative Fiction
Synopsis:
MOONSHOT: The Indigenous Comics Collection brings together dozens of creators from North America to contribute comic book stories showcasing the rich heritage and identity of indigenous storytelling. From traditional stories to exciting new visions of the future, this collection presents some of the finest comic book and graphic novel work on the continent.
Educator & Series Information
Inhabit Education Books is proud to distribute this important collection of Indigenous comic stories, originally published by Alternate History Comics. Moonshot has been published under Avani, an imprint featuring titles that extend beyond the Canadian North, giving readers the opportunity to explore cultures and stories from all over Canada and around the world.
Ages 12+
This is volume 3 in the series.
Additional Information
144 pages | 6.50" x 10.25" | colour illustrations
Synopsis:
Award-winning author Stephen Graham Jones returns with Night of the Mannequins, a contemporary horror story where a teen prank goes very wrong and all hell breaks loose: is there a supernatural cause, a psychopath on the loose, or both?
We thought we'd play a fun prank on her, and now most of us are dead.
One last laugh for the summer as it winds down. One last prank just to scare a friend. Bringing a mannequin into a theater is just some harmless fun, right? Until it wakes up. Until it starts killing.
Luckily, Sawyer has a plan. He’ll be a hero. He'll save everyone to the best of his ability. He'll do whatever he needs to so he can save the day. That's the thing about heroes—sometimes you have to become a monster first.
Reviews
"Suffused with questions about the nature of change and friendship, “Night of the Mannequins” is a fairy tale of impermanence showcasing Graham Jones’s signature style of smart, irreverent horror." —The New York Times
"Stephen Graham Jones’s range and his understanding of horror in fiction and film is staggering. In this novella he juggles—sometimes in very sly ways—slasher stories, coming of age horror, traditions of madness and unreliability, and Kaiju to create an amazingly speedy, voice-driven read that's tons of fun. Each new book of his gives his own take on a different facet of horror, and together they all add up to something really expansive and original." —Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World
"Readers will delight more than once in the realization that they might be reading a different story from the one they thought was unfolding... trust Jones and enjoy the ride." —Shelf Awareness
Additional Information
144 pages | 5.00" x 8.00"
Synopsis:
Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in an epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home -- until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything -- including them.
Reviews
"David A. Robertson has written such a fine, beautiful novel. He manages to combine hard truths about our history with a Narnia-like fantasy, sweeping us into the world of the story while opening our hearts as well." -- Susin Nielsen, author of We Are All Made of Molecules and No Fixed Address
“This is a book that is rich in its characterization, evocative in its descriptions, and skillful in its weaving together of traditions of the past and life in the present.” --CM Magazine
"This middle-grade fantasy deftly and compellingly centers Indigenous culture." --STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews
"The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga is a story about two Indigenous children forced away from their families to a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Struggling to fit, the two children find a space in the attic that opens a portal into another realm. They learn the traditional ways to survive and embark on a dangerous mission there." - The Dalai Lama Center
Educator & Series Information
For ages 10+ (middle-grades).
This is Book 1 of the Misewa Saga. Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in this epic middle-grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.
This book is available in French: La saga Misewa: N° 1 - Les terres isolées.
Additional Information
256 pages | 5.44" x 8.25" | Jacket art and interior illustrations Natasha Donovan | Paperback
Synopsis:
“My million years of immortality have barely begun…”
Pursued by warring human/alien hybrids, the immortal Kyrill, also known as Salamander, is the key to a prison forged by the seven gods of creation. While one of the warring factions moves to protect him, the other seeks to use him to open the prison. Kyrill’s story unfolds in a war-ravaged dystopia where his people, Indigenous North Americans, are space pirates who control the solar system’s spaceways. The Krillian Key: Salamander Run is a fun, sassy and fast-paced graphic novel set in the post-apocalyptic future of Neo-New York circa 2242, with flashbacks to modern-day Canada.
Additional Information
200 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | black and white illustrations
Synopsis:
“The ragged edges of the temperate rainforest reach far out onto an island in the western seas. It is a place where one chooses to go ahead or turn back…”
In a prequel to the award-winning Red: A Haida Manga, acclaimed artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas blends Asian manhwa/manga with the Haida artistic and oral tradition in another stunning hand-painted volume.
In a small near-future community perched between the ocean and the northern temperate rainforest, a series of disasters is taking a heavy toll. It is early fall and a fuel spill has contaminated the marine foods the village was preparing to harvest. As food supplies dwindle, a small group decides to make a late-season expedition to search for sea lions. Surprised by a ferocious storm, they abandon one man, Carpe, on an isolated rock at sea. After ten days they are finally able to return, but he has vanished. The story follows Carpe’s encounters with the Lord of the Rock, who demands retribution for Carpe’s role in the hunt, and Carpe’s fate in the half-life between human and animal, life and death.
Educator & Series Information
Haida manga is a contemporary style of Haida comics and print cartoons that explores the elements of both traditional North Pacific Indigenous arts and narrative, while also adapting contemporary techniques of artistic design from the western portion of the North Pacific, namely the Japanese manga from which its name derives.
Additional Information
120 pages | 10.00" x 10.00" | 100 colour illustrations
Synopsis:
Indigenous protectors use language revitalization to save the Earth from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches.
Ts’ür’i and Aghay are the Dakwäkãda Warriors protecting Nän from their nemesis Cyber Nà’į and Space Kwäday Dän. Flying in their spaceship, can they prevent the Sha being stolen from Cyber Nà’į and Space Kwäday Dän?!
As a young person growing up in Haines Junction YT, artist Cole Pauls performed in a traditional song and dance group called the Dakwäkãda Dancers. During that time, Pauls encountered the ancestral language of Southern Tutchone. Driven by a desire to help revitalize the language, he created Dakwäkãda Warriors, a bilingual comic about two earth protectors saving the world from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches.
Pauls’ Elders supported him throughout the creation process by offering consultation and translation. The resulting work is a whimsical young adult graphic novel that offers an accessible allegory of colonialism. Dakwäkãda Warriors also includes a behind-the-scenes view into the making of the comic and a full-colour insert featuring character illustrations by guest Indigenous Canadian artists.
Awards
- 2020 Indigenous Voices Awards Winner for Works in an Indigenous Language
Reviews
From the publisher, an interview with Cole Pauls:
1. Why did you decide to create this comic?
I wanted to create a sense of identity and strength for the youth from my hometown and the Yukon. To be portrayed in a heroic but also realistic way, where culture is power and the community is stronger because of that. I made Dakwäkãda Warriors to keep Southern Tutchone language and culture alive.
2. What do you hope your work will bring to the Canadian comics canon?
A proper portrayal of Yukon Indigenous culture, we don't live in igloos, ya know!! I want to show the world what Southern Tutchone culture really is and how strong Indigenous culture can be when properly portrayed by someone who lives and practices it.
Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 8 to 16
Language revitalization in an allegory of colonialization.
Artist Cole Pauls wanted to reclaim the Southern Tutchone language he had learned as a youth while performing in a traditional song and dance group. So, he created a comic about two Earth Protectors saving the Earth from evil pioneers and cyborg sasquatches. But he also went to his elders and asked them to translate his comic into the two dialects of Southern Tutchone. The resulting work is an allegory of colonialization done in an accessible format, a whimsical young adult graphic novel which helps to revitalize language. Pauls includes a "making of" postscript to give context to the project, and invites guest Indigenous Canadian artists to provide "pin-ups" of his characters.
Additional Information
112 pages | 6.50" x 10.00" | 112 illustrations
Synopsis:
Cole Harper is dead. Reynold McCabe is alive and free. Mihko Laboratories has reopened the research facility and works to manufacture and weaponize the illness that previously plagued Wounded Sky. People are dying. The community has been quarantined. And time is running out. What deal did Eva strike with Choch? Who will defeat Reynold and Mihko?
Reviews
"Robertson’s final installment in this excellent trilogy does not disappoint. He manages to take on important and timely themes while always keeping the reader engaged, engrossed and entertained. Fans will root for this believable cast of characters as they finally get to the truth of the mysterious goings-on at Wounded Sky. I can’t wait to see more from this fine author!”— Susin Nielson, Governor General's Award-winning author, April 2019
Educator & Series Information
Ghosts is the final novel in David A. Robertson's The Reckoner trilogy, it is preceded by Strangers (Book 1) and Monsters (Book 2)
The Reckoner series is recommended Ages: 12-18
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 9 to 12 for English Language Arts.
This book is available in French: La trilogie Reckoner - Tome 3: Fantômes
Additional Information
230 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"
Synopsis:
From the internationally acclaimed Inuit throat singer who has dazzled and enthralled the world with music it had never heard before, a fierce, tender, heartbreaking story unlike anything you've ever read.
Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them.
A girl grows up in Nunavut in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. She knows the ravages of alcohol, and violence at the hands of those she should be able to trust. She sees the spirits that surround her, and the immense power that dwarfs all of us.
When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this.
Veering back and forth between the grittiest features of a small arctic town, the electrifying proximity of the world of animals, and ravishing world of myth, Tanya Tagaq explores a world where the distinctions between good and evil, animal and human, victim and transgressor, real and imagined lose their meaning, but the guiding power of love remains.
Haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once, Tagaq moves effortlessly between fiction and memoir, myth and reality, poetry and prose, and conjures a world and a heroine readers will never forget.
Awards
- Winner of the 2019 Indigenous Voices Awards for Published Prose in English.
- Winner of the 2018 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Prose Fiction
Reviews
“Tagaq’s surreal meld of poetry and prose transmutes the Arctic’s boundless beauty, intensity, and desolation into a wrenching contemporary mythology.” –The New Yorker
“Though the protagonist’s coming-of-age story, generously and lovingly documented by Tagaq, is the anchor, Split Tooth is not a book that can be fully absorbed in one sitting. It’s possible to sink deeper and deeper into the narrative with each successive reading. Like a smirking teenager, Split Tooth blithely gives typical literary expectations the finger, daring us to see and experience narrative as chaotic, emotional, and deeply instinctive. And it succeeds.” –Quill and Quire
“Tanya’s book is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever read. It’s deeply profound, emotional and personal, and furthers her artistic experimentation and genius into a new realm. I love her even more after reading it, and I’m once again awed by her talent.” –Jesse Wente, CBC Broadcaster
"[A] forceful coming-of-age tale.” –Toronto Life magazine
Additional Information
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Synopsis:
Kai and Caleb Goodacre have been kidnapped just as rumors of a cult sweeping across the reservation leads Maggie and Hastiin to investigate an outpost, and what they find there will challenge everything they’ve come to know in this “badass” (The New York Times) action-packed sequel to Trail of Lightning.
It’s been four weeks since the bloody showdown at Black Mesa, and Maggie Hoskie, Diné monster hunter, is trying to make the best of things. Only her latest bounty hunt has gone sideways, she’s lost her only friend, Kai Arviso, and she’s somehow found herself responsible for a girl with a strange clan power.
Then the Goodacre twins show up at Maggie’s door with the news that Kai and the youngest Goodacre, Caleb, have fallen in with a mysterious cult, led by a figure out of Navajo legend called the White Locust. The Goodacres are convinced that Kai’s a true believer, but Maggie suspects there’s more to Kai’s new faith than meets the eye. She vows to track down the White Locust, then rescue Kai and make things right between them.
Her search leads her beyond the Walls of Dinétah and straight into the horrors of the Big Water world outside. With the aid of a motley collection of allies, Maggie must battle body harvesters, newborn casino gods and, ultimately, the White Locust himself. But the cult leader is nothing like she suspected, and Kai might not need rescuing after all. When the full scope of the White Locust’s plans are revealed, Maggie’s burgeoning trust in her friends, and herself, will be pushed to the breaking point, and not everyone will survive.
Educator & Series Information
Recommended for grades 9+
This is the second book in The Sixth World series.
Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"
Synopsis:
Ghosts aren’t meant to stick around forever…
Shelly and her grandmother catch ghosts. In their hair.
Just like all the women in their family, they can see souls who haven’t transitioned yet; it’s their job to help the ghosts along their journey. When Shelly’s mom dies suddenly, Shelly’s relationship to ghosts—and death—changes. Instead of helping spirits move on, Shelly starts hoarding them. But no matter how many ghost cats, dogs, or people she hides in her room, Shelly can’t ignore the one ghost that’s missing. Why hasn’t her mom’s ghost come home yet?
Rooted in a Cree worldview and inspired by stories about the author’s great-grandmother’s life, The Ghost Collector delves into questions of grief and loss, and introduces an exciting new voice in tween fiction that will appeal to fans of Kate DiCamillo’s Louisiana’s Way Home and Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls.
Reviews
“Allison Mills’ The Ghost Collector is both delightful and haunting. A delicious blend of the supernatural and the very real. Mills has great respect for her audience. Taking great care to keep the narrative moving while never simplifying the novel’s ideas and themes of loss. The result is a nuanced study in empathy for both the characters and the readers.” — Sunburst Award Jury, 08/20
“Simple language makes The Ghost Collector accessible to its tween audience while introducing sophisticated concepts. In Shelly, Mills has created a believable, likeable character who learns important life lessons about the future in the rich context of her cultural past.” —CM Reviews, 09/20/19
Educator Information
Recommended for ages 10+
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 6 to 8 for English Language Arts.
Additional Information
192 pages | 5.50" x 7.50"
Synopsis:
Louise Erdrich, the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of LaRose and The Round House, paints a startling portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event.
The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.
Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fueled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.
There are rumors of martial law, of Congress confining pregnant women. Of a registry, and rewards for those who turn these wanted women in. Flickering through the chaos are signs of increasing repression: a shaken Cedar witnesses a family wrenched apart when police violently drag a mother from her husband and child in a parking lot. The streets of her neighborhood have been renamed with Bible verses. A stranger answers the phone when she calls her adoptive parents, who have vanished without a trace. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.
A chilling dystopian novel both provocative and prescient, Future Home of the Living God is a startlingly original work from one of our most acclaimed writers: a moving meditation on female agency, self-determination, biology, and natural rights that speaks to the troubling changes of our time.
Reviews
“Erdrich’s inclusiveness, her expansive vision of humanity surprises and pleases on every page…Erdrich’s virtuosity reminds me of an eagle in flight…Her wisdom blossoms from multicultural sources and is always inviting the reader in, in, to deeper understanding and identity.” — Hudson Review
“A streamlined dystopian thriller…Erdrich’s tense and lyrical new work of speculative fiction stands shoulder-to-braced-shoulder right alongside The Handmaid’s Tale.”— Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
“Erdrich stuns again in Future Home of The Living God…She grounds her story in a kind of sharply drawn reality that makes the standard tropes of dark futurism that much more unnerving…Erdrich is a writer whose words carry a spiritual weight far beyond science, or fiction.”— Entertainment Weekly
“Erdrich is a seer, a visionary whose politics are inextricable from her fiction…[Future Home of the Living God] is an eerie masterpiece, a novel so prescient that though it conjures an alternate reality, it often provokes the feeling that, yes this is really happening.” — O, The Oprah Magazine
“In this fast-paced novel, rapid and catastrophic changes to human reproduction make the survival of the race uncertain…Erdrich imagines an America in which winter is a casualty of climate change, borders are sealed, men are ‘militantly insecure,’ and women’s freedom is evaporating…Vivid…Compelling.”— New Yorker
Additional Information
288 pages | 5.31" x 8.00" | Paperback
Synopsis:
Cole Harper is struggling to settle into life in Wounded Sky First Nation. He may have stopped a serial killer but the trouble is far from over. A creature lurks in the shadows of Blackwood Forest, the health clinic is on lockdown by a mysterious organization, and long-held secrets threaten to bubble to the surface. Can Cole learn the truth about his father's death? Why won't Choch give him a straight answer? Where the heck is Jayne? Oh, and high school sucks.
Reviews
"Cole, 17, is an interesting main character caught in a web of deception and surrounded by threatening people and circumstances. One of the main themes of the book is Cole’s mental health and his need to deal with sometimes crippling anxiety. There are times he can talk himself down, times he needs medication and times that the support from his friends help him cope. Robertson speaks from personal experience, and so his portrayal of Cole is filled with realism as well as understanding and empathy." — CM: Canadian Review of Materials
"The ending...is so unexpected that readers will eagerly anticipate a third volume. A satisfying continuation of a moody, stylish series." — Kirkus Reviews
"Robertson’s knack for writing distinct teenage voices also provides important character development — a tough requirement for the middle volume of any trilogy, in which plot resolution is usually minimal. The dialogue between Cole and his friends also uncovers the different ways in which folks grieve both those they’ve lost and the culture they’ve left behind. "— Nyala Ali, Winnipeg Free Press
Educator & Series Information
Monsters is the second novel in David A. Robertson's The Reckoner trilogy. It is the follow-up to Strangers, and is proceeded by Ghosts.
The Reckoner series is recommended for ages 12 to 18.
The Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools list recommends this resource for Grades 9-12 English Language Arts.
This book is available in French: La trilogie Reckoner - Tome 2: Monstres
Additional Information
260 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"
Synopsis:
A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice.
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.
Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.
Reviews
“This slow-burning thriller is also a powerful story of survival and will leave readers breathless.” — Publishers Weekly
"Rice seamlessly injects Anishinaabe language into the dialogue and creates a beautiful rendering of the natural world. . . This title will appeal to fans of literary science fiction akin to Cormac McCarthy as well as to readers looking for a fresh voice in indigenous fiction.” — Booklist
“Perfect for those who read Iain Reid's Foe this summer and are looking for something in the same vein.” — The Globe and Mail
“The creeping tension and vividly drawn landscapes make Waubgeshig Rice’s characters choices all the more real.” — Toronto Star
“Moon of the Crusted Snow asks how do we live in a good way during the collapse of the infrastructure that supports modern life? For Evan Whitesky, the answer lies in rekindling Ojibwe, the old ways, language and culture. For other characters, when the food runs out, all options are on the table, no matter how gruesome. As the tensions between those surviving the end of modern civilization build to a harrowing conclusion, Rice deftly weaves tender family moments with his brutal survival scenes in the unforgiving northern Ontario winter. Chilling in the best way possible.” — Eden Robinson, award-winning author of Monkey Beach and Son of a Trickster
Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 10 to 12 for English Language Arts.
Contains strong language and mature subject matter relating to violence and death.
Additional Information
224 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"
Synopsis:
Leira is about to start her initiation as a priestess when her world is turned upside down. A violent earthquake leaves her home--and her family--in pieces. And the earth goddess hasn't finished with the island yet.
With her family, Leira flees across the sea to Crete, expecting sanctuary. But a volcanic eruption throws the entire world into darkness. After the resulting tsunami, society descends into chaos; the status and privilege of being noble-born are reduced to nothing. With her injured mother and elderly nurse, Leira must find the strength and resourcefulness within herself to find safety.
A thrilling new Bronze Age survival story from the award-winning author of Dragonfly Song and Nim's Island.
Reviews
"[Orr's] mixture of prose and free verse to tell Leira's story is lyrical and magnetic—and devastating. Not for readers searching for a simple or happy journey, this is a beautiful song of a book that shows that life isn't always fair, but change is always constant."—Kirkus Reviews
"Leira's lyrical first-person narrative advances the story along beautifully with a fitting sense of urgency, and free-verse songs clue readers in to her emotional development. Immersive historical fiction."—Booklist Starred Review
"Some chapters written in verse make the more emotional plotlines sing. An eye-opening look at how difficult it is when one's status changes in life, and how attitude can shape outcome. VERDICT: Beautiful writing and a fast-moving plot will give young historical fiction fans much to love."—School Library Journal
"Leira's protracted fall from grace is effectively punctuated by seamless narrative shifts among prose, verse, and song, which fans of Orr's Dragonfly Song will recognize. What she endures—the uncertainty of her family's fate and becoming a servant herself—makes for a gripping exploration of privilege during her journey toward womanhood."—Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
"Swallow's Dance is a sweeping tale of courage, fortitude, hardship and perseverance against all odds. It is also a coming of age story, an intimate glimpse into the life of a young girl adjusting to puberty at a time when her family, friendships and her understanding of her place in the world are brutally torn apart. Wendy Orr has crafted a sympathetic, memorable heroine whose struggles and challenges transcend time from the Bronze Age to modern day....While suitable for middle-grade students and a wonderful introduction to mythology and discussions surrounding puberty, spirituality, class, mental health, death and disaster, Swallow's Dance is one of those rare books that is also just a great story, an epic tale for all ages. Highly Recommended."—CM Magazine
"Top notch historical fiction for those who like it ancient!... The scenes of devastation – earthquake in Santorini, tsunami in Crete – are riveting to experience through the lens of a survivor."—Youth Services Book Review
"Orr's attention to character development is extremely well done....Swallow's Dance could be used in conjunction with the grades-five-to-eight Language Arts or Social Studies curriculum and would be great to teach students how to incorporate symbolism and imagery through free verse and poetry. In addition, Swallow's Dance could also be used to teach students about family, culture, history and the importance of the role of women in society. A fantastic novel to use as a read-aloud or novel study!"—Canadian Children's Book News
Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 10-14
Themes/Subjects: Legends, Myths, Fables - Greek & Roman / Historical - Ancient Civilizations / Action & Adventure - Survival Stories / Coming of Age.
Additional Information
288 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"
Synopsis:
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo reservation) has been reborn. The gods and heroes of legend walk the land, but so do monsters.
Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine.
Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel the rez, unraveling clues from ancient legends, trading favors with tricksters, and battling dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.
As Maggie discovers the truth behind the killings, she will have to confront her past if she wants to survive.
Welcome to the Sixth World.
Reviews
“Someone please cancel Supernatural already and give us at least five seasons of this badass indigenous monster-hunter and her silver-tongued sidekick.” —The New York Times
“[C]rafts a powerful and fiercely personal journey through a compelling postapocalyptic landscape.” —Kate Elliott, New York Times bestselling author of Court of Fives and Black Wolves
"Roanhorse vividly depicts Navajo land, legends, and culture in her marvelous fantasy debut, which launches the Sixth World series. After a cataclysm flooded much of the earth, the Dinétah—the homeland of the Navajo, or Diné—was one of the few remaining areas where people could survive. Legendary powers have risen among the Diné, and Maggie Hoskie is one of those who wield them. She was trained by a supernatural mentor to hunt monsters, and after vicious creatures commit a series of grisly murders, she has to muster all her skills to confront the incredibly powerful witch creating them. Roanhorse unspools a fascinating narrative of colorful magic in a world made otherwise bleak by both natural and man-made circumstances. The monster-hunting plot nearly takes a back seat to Maggie’s challenging journey of working through personal and cultural trauma, including the violent deaths of loved ones and an abusive relationship. Her partner, Kai, is a force for healing despite, or because of, his own history of pain. Their story is a fresh take on the tale of the emotionally and spiritually wounded hero who faces down increasing evil to make the world better. This rich tale from a strong Native American voice is recommended for all fantasy audiences." Sara Megibow, Publishers Weekly
Series Information
This is the first book in The Sixth World series.
Additional Information
304 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"




















