Firekeeper’s Daughter

With sharp turns and charming characters, this debut thriller by Annishinabe author Boulley centers 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine, who loves and fits into her community but yearns for official citizenship in the Sault tribe. Science-minded Daunis had planned on going away for college, but after her uncle overdoses on meth and her grandmother has a stroke, she stays closer to her Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., home, negotiating a complex familial situation having to do with her deceased Annishinabe father. After witnessing her best friend’s murder by her meth-reliant boyfriend, she begins looking into the mounting local meth overdoses, using her knowledge of chemistry as well as traditional plants and medicine to source the drug and, amid growing danger, reveal its seller. Featuring prolific use of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language), this wonderfully tribally specific story offers powerful messages about what it can mean to be an Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman): “complex and sometimes exhausted, but mostly brave.” Hitting hard when it comes to issues such as citizenship, language revitalization, and the corrosive presence of drugs on Native communities, this novel will long stand in the hearts of both Native and non-Native audiences. Ages 14–up. [em]Author’s agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Mar.) [/em]