The Canyon's Edge - Dusti Bowling

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Nora's birthday marks the one-year anniversary of the worst day of her life. To distract them both from the memories of the horrible shooting that killed Nora's mom, her dad surprises her with a trip to explore a slot canyon deep in the Arizona desert. But in the twisting, winding depths, the unthinkable happens. Suddenly, Nora finds herself lost,

alone,

at the bottom of a canyon,

in the middle of a desert.

Separated from her supplies, she faces dehydration, venomous scorpions, deadly snakes, and, worst of all, the Beast who has terrorized her dreams for the last year. To save herself and her father, Nora must conquer her fears - and outsmart the canyon's dangers."

Oh my god. This book. It's a bit long for a middle grade book, just over three hundred pages, but after part one (about thirty pages in) it shifts to being a novel written in verse and is a pretty quick read. (I read it in less than a day, but I also could not put it down.) It is a beautiful book - different blends of poetry styles, incorporating images, just...so evocative.

We see a bit of Nora's dad in the book, but for most of it the reader is alone with Nora. Through her reflection and flashbacks, we get to know more about her parents, her best friend, and another woman who was involved in the shooting when Nora lost her mom. I was impressed with how well-developed her friendship with Danielle and her connection with both her parents were, given that we pretty exclusively get to know each of them through Nora's memories. Solid writing.

I was also blown away by the atmosphere Dusti Bowling created in this book. Setting the scene, building up tension and fear, generating a sense of urgency...maybe it's because I spend a lot of time hiking in the desert, just started getting back into rock climbing after not doing it since I was a teenager, and, like Nora, am terrified of heights, but I was biting my nails this entire book. There was one point in particular, after Nora's encounter with a bark scorpion, where I was terrified out of my mind for her. Just incredible. If you, like me, enjoy the occasional stressful surviving-in-nature realistic fiction, I highly recommend picking this one up.

Five Little Indians - Michelle Good

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰✰

Character development: ✰✰✰✰✰

Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn't want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fueled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can't stop running and moves restlessly from job to job - through fishing grounds, orchards, and logging camps - trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward."

Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie, and Maisie, although different ages, all overlapped in their time at the residential school each of them was stolen from their families and forced to attend. After helping Howie escape, Kenny manages to get away himself. Howie goes to the United States with his mom to avoid being caught and sent back, and Kenny goes back to his mom's house for a bit before heading out on his own to try to make a living. Clara and Maisie are released before Lucy, so when she finally gets out after turning sixteen, she joins them in Vancouver, where the three work off the books at a seedy hotel for less than minimum wage. Despite the differences in the paths each of them has taken, they are all united in their attempts to process the trauma they experienced while imprisoned at the Mission.

This book pulls you in from the first page. There is no easing the reader into the story - immediately, we find ourselves in the world of these kids, who are being abused in the false name of education (a.k.a. assimilating to colonizer culture) at the hands of religious figures. And while the characters are referred to as men and women after they are released back into the world, don't forget that they are kids. The youngest woman at the start of the story is only sixteen, the other four are not much older, and after being forced to attend residential school and missing out on a real education, they are on their own, trying to process a decade of trauma, and learning how to survive in an unfamiliar world. 

As I'm sure you can piece together, this is not a light or an easy read, but it is an important one. It bravely shines a light on something that white history has tried to pretend never happened and spotlights the resiliency and courage of the families and children who were torn apart by their government - resiliency and courage they should never have had to develop. I strongly recommend that you read this book, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the history of residential schools in the United States and Canada.