Angeline Boulley

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2024) Featured Review: Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

Warrior Girl Unearthed
by Angeline Boulley
Narrated by Isabella Star LeBlanc
Macmillian Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners
Publication Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781250877277

Perry Firekeeper-Birch just wants to enjoy her summer. But when a close call with a bear causes her to have a car accident she is forced to complete an internship at her tribe’s museum. There she learns about NAGPRA and repatriation (or lack thereof) of ancestors from a local university. She and her friends embark on a journey to bring their ancestors home by any means necessary. All the while, Native girls are going missing under mysterious circumstances, which is an issue that is all but ignored by the authorities. Warrior Girl Unearthed is a heartfelt story full of mystery and intrigue with realistic depictions of issues faced by indigenous people.

Isabella Star LeBlanc’s narration masterfully brings the story to life with her pronunciation of Ojibwe language and her captivating tone. The narration enhances the story by providing readers with an authentic voice depicting the native language spoken by the tribe as well as the reservation accent and code switching.
This book is perfect for readers who enjoy authors such as Angie Thomas, Courtney Summers, Darcie Little Badger, or E. Lockhart. Those who enjoyed Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, will enjoy this story as well.

– Haley Shaw

Other Nominated Titles

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2024) Featured Review: Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

Warrior Girl Unearthed
by Angeline Boulley
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Release date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781250766588

Perry Firekeeper-Birch would far rather spend her summer fishing, which is in stark contrast to her college-bound twin’s plan to participate in the Kinomaage program’s internship. Perry’s plans for a “Summer Slack” are abruptly ended when she wrecks the twins’ Jeep trying to avoid a mother bear and her cub. To pay for the repairs, Perry’s Aunt Daunis requires her to participate in the internship program and hand over all earnings. What starts as a punishment quickly morphs into a fascinating internship as Perry navigates the NAGPRA regulations surrounding the recovery of the remains and funerary artifacts of Indigenous ancestors.

Part heist, part ethical dilemma, part deep dive into tribal politics and issues, this book has importance beyond its audience appeal. Those who fell in love with Daunis in Firekeeper’s Daughter will welcome her role in this companion novel. Perry is a fully formed character in her own right and is surrounded by characters who are equally well developed. The family and relational dynamics are universally recognizable, inviting readers to feel the pain of the desecration Indigenous people’s ancestors in the name of “science” on a much more visceral level. Broken into week-long segments, an epigraph highlighting the real life struggle and injustice Indigenous people face in getting those remains and objects returned introduces the challenge Perry (and Cooper Turtle) will face in their quest. Boulley also seamlessly weaves the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women as well as the loopholes surrounding the prosecution of domestic abuse perpetrated on them into the plot made more compelling by a strong female protagonist and evidence so great that readers don’t require an explicit message to feel the injury. Boulley also brings the “receipts” by ending with “Cooper’s List of Repatriation Resources” which further allows readers to judge the inequities for themselves.

This is a solid mystery/adventure that will appeal to fans of true crime and history. Give this to readers of Boulley’s first book, Firekeeper’s Daughter (although they won’t have had to read it in order to appreciate this one) or readers who liked Kate McLaughlin’s Daughter, or the Agatha mysteries collaboration by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson.

-Jodi Kruse

Other Nominated Titles

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.
The Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee appreciates teen feedback as members evaluate the nominated titles. Teen librarians are encouraged to share the List of Potential Nominees under consideration with their patrons and solicit feedback using the link: https://bit.ly/BFYA24TeenFB

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Featured Review of Hunting By Stars by Cherie Dimaline

Hunting By Stars: A Marrow Thieves Novel by Cherie Dimaline
ABRAMS/Amulet Books
Publication Date: October 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1419753473

In a near future ravaged by climate and disease, some people have stopped dreaming. These people go mad or waste away, so the government has done the unthinkable: Set up residential “schools” where the bone marrow of Indigenous people is harvested for the dreams they still carry. Métis teen Francis “French” Dusome has been on the run for most of his life, ever since the day his brother sacrificed himself so French could get away. French survives in the wilderness with a close knit group whose members–including Rose, Miig, Wab, and Chi-Boy–are from tribal nations all over North America; together, they are family. So when French is captured, there’s no question that he will be looked for. But new threats bring new danger, and the group is forced to separate. Now Rose is desperately searching for French–and running right into the deceptively open arms of a strange new group. Miig is leading the others south–crossing the U.S. border where the line between friends and those pretending to be friends is very thin. And French is imprisoned in a place where so many of his people have gone to die–and about to face terrible choices that will harm those he loves no matter what he decides. Reuniting will require sacrifices, betrayals, and desperate bids for a survival that is anything but assured.

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2022) Nominations Round-Up, Summer

Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults 2022 nominees cover art — Due to the large number of nominees, not all titles are shown here. See full list below.

Each quarter, the Selected Lists teams compile the titles that have been officially nominated to date. These are titles that have been suggested by the team or through the title suggestion form, read by multiple members of the team, and received approval to be designated an official nomination. At the end of the year, the final list of nominations and each Selected List’s Top Ten will be chosen from these titles.

*Prices shown are for Library Digital Download.

Between Perfect and Real. By Ray Stoeve. Read by MW Cartozian Wilson. Recorded Books, LLC/Recorded Books, Inc., $70 (9781705028339).

Dean is a trans guy struggling with coming out to his friends and family. Exploring the internet and joining community groups allows him to more clearly define himself while acting as Romeo in a play helps his self discovery. Wilson’s voice is well matched and he skillfully narrates this emotional story.

Black Girl, Call Home. By Jasmine Mans. Read by Jasmine Mans. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group/Penguin Audio, $22.80 (9780593346884).

Mans calls herself and other Black girls home in this love letter and essential companion to girls and women on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing. Mans narrates this powerful and painful collection with many poems read and produced in unique ways.

The Hub Challenge 2021 – Amazing Debuts

The Hub Challenge 2021 is in full swing, and readers are taking advantage of all the ways to participate! Even if you didn’t sign up officially, you can always join the fun by keeping a copy of the Bingo Challenge board handy for inspiration.

Several of our Challenge participants have tackled that “Read an Amazing Debut” square, and others are curious about how to connect with those titles that might be Morris Award-contenders for 2022. To begin, some participants are using the 2021 Morris Award finalists to earn their Amazing Debut square.

Here is Leanna Chappell, Hub Challenge participant and Head of Youth Services at the Swanton Public Library in Ohio, describing her love of Christina Hammonds Reed’s tremendous debut The Black Kids:

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Nominations Round-Up, Spring

Each quarter, the Selected Lists teams compile the titles that have been officially nominated to date. These books have been suggested by the team or through the title suggestion form, read by multiple members of the team, and received approval to be designated an official nomination. At the end of the year, the final list of nominations and each Selected List’s Top Ten will be chosen from these titles.

The Awakening of Malcolm X. By Ilyasah Shabazz and Tiffany D. Jackson. Macmillan/Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers. $17.99 (9780374313296).

While serving a sentence in Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little is introduced to the teachings of Islam and begins to correspond with Elijah Mohammad. As he struggles to process his anger and his past, he begins to solidify his beliefs and become the man known as Malcolm X.

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Featured Review of Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) / Macmillan
Publication Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1250766564

In 2004 Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine is navigating her complicated identity as the daughter of a white French mother and an Ojibwe father. Though she’s delayed college due to her grandmother’s ill health, Daunis has her family, her best friend, and the cute new boy on her brother’s hockey team to pass the time. But then tragedy strikes in the form of a deadly new drug that rocks her close-knit community. Using her love of science and her understanding of traditional Anishinaabe medicine, Daunis agrees to go undercover for the FBI, but what she finds cuts close to the bone, and Daunis will have to draw on all her strengths to face the hardest truths.