Buffalo Dreamer

This story of maturation and involvement in community will appeal to readers interested in the past and in present-day social action.

Compelling yet heartbreaking--and essential reading for all young people.

Twelve-year-old Summer is excited to leave Arizona and visit her family on the Cree reservation in Northern Alberta, where she will ride horses and enjoy fish fries with her cousin, kokom, and mosom, who attended a residential school as a child. Shortly before reaching the reservation, however, Summer begins experiencing vivid, persistent dreams about a girl from the past struggling to escape a nearby residential school where, in Summer's waking world, a crew has begun searching for recently discovered unmarked graves. In the dream narrative, the girl, who identifies herself as Buffalo Dreamer, is given the name Mary at the school, which is attempting to separate students from their Indigenous heritage. Buffalo Dreamer moves quickly in her escape attempt, taking back paths to avoid detection until she's caught in a snowstorm. Suddenly, the dreams stop, leaving Summer to wonder if she survived. Plains Cree and Taino author Duncan juxtaposes Summer's intense dreams with the low-conflict nature of her everyday life, which includes detailed descriptions of Native traditions such as picking sweetgrass, making for a brief look into Indigenous customs and history. Ages 10-up. (Aug.)

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* Drawing inspiration from her own family's experiences, Duncan (Kehewin Cree/Taino) tells the story of an Indigenous girl who confronts hard truths one summer. . . . Duncan shines a light on a devastating aspect of Indigenous history, never sugarcoating the topic yet leaving readers with hope. Her writing is seamless, tight, and immersive, making stellar use of sensory descriptions, and she braids important truths into her captivating narrative: 'We are the living proof of our ancestors' resilience and the strong spirit of our people.' Compelling yet heartbreaking—and essential reading for all young people. —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Past and present converge in Duncan's novel about an extended Canadian Cree family spending vacation time together. . . . This story of maturation and involvement in community will appeal to readers interested in the past and in present-day social action. —Booklist

Summer is earnest, thoughtful, and unfailingly kind . . . the perfect narrator to introduce a heavy topic that is underexplored in literature for youth. For readers unfamiliar with the schools, enough context is given to understand the immense evil of a system that ripped Indigenous children away from their families to essentially abuse them into being acceptably 'standard.' Duncan's powerful afterward offers a brief description of how her own family survived the harrowing experience of the residential school system, ending the book with a poignant sense of intimacy. —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books