Two middle-school aged Indigenous children in foster care, both removed from their parents, find family in each other on a fantasy quest. I enjoyed the fantasy/mythological quest part of the story and the developing relationship between the two foster siblings, Morgan and Eli. A wide variety of social issues were tackled in a non-threatening way, especially the practice of ripping Indigenous children from their families and putting them in foster care and the hoarding and wasting of wealth/resources. I think my sons would have really enjoyed this book in middle school. Nicely written. ( )

i really loved the messaging here and the point of this. i especially loved everything that was happening and the emotionality of the early part of the book. it got harder for me when it became more of a fantasy, but i know that's just me. ( )

2.25 stars

Morgan and Eli are indigenous kids, foster kids in a white home. Morgan is a sulky teenager, always in a bad mood, and Eli is younger. When they hide in the attic one day, Eli has a drawing he puts up on the wall that comes to life and pulls them through to another world of talking animals and learning of their indigenous culture.

Fantasy, talking animals – definitely not my thing. At first, I really did not like Morgan (sulky, complaining teenagers), but I would have been happier with a story in the real world. I listened to the audio and tuned out much of the other world stuff. I had a gist of some of what was going on, but it just wasn’t that interesting to me. And… talking animals. No. ( )

Two uprooted Cree children find themselves in a dreamlike adventure in this series opener.

The edginess 13-year-old Morgan feels runs deep. As a First Nations kid whose whole life has been lived in one White foster home after another, she feels little reason to get excited about anything. Two months in to her new foster home placement, she inherits a new foster brother, Eli, a young Cree boy who spends his time quietly drawing in his sketchbook. After a blowup with their earnestly well-intentioned White foster parents, Morgan and Eli shelter themselves in the attic, where a drawing in his pad seems to come to life, creating a portal into the wintry Barren Grounds of Misewa, where the passage of time is, Narnia-like, different from in Winnipeg. After Eli disappears into this world, Morgan is determined to go after him to bring him back. When she finds him, they discover that the Misewa community of animal beings needs their help to survive the White Time. Robertson (Norway House Cree Nation) carefully establishes Morgan’s anger and feelings of alienation, her resentment at their foster parents’ clumsy attempts to connect her to her culture culminating when they awkwardly present a gift of moccasins. The shift into a contemporary Indigenous fantasy is seamless; it is in this world that these foster siblings discover hope and meaning that sustain them when they return to Winnipeg.

This middle-grade fantasy deftly and compellingly centers Indigenous culture. (Fantasy. 10-14)

-Kirkus Review

Predictable but a fun ride. I found the "real world" parts flat and formulaic; I almost gave up before the kids go through the portal. Arik is a charming character and I'm hoping for more of her in the sequel (which was banned by a Toronto school board, prompting me to read the trilogy right now). ( )