Boulley, Angeline. Sisters in the Wind. Henry Holt, 09/2025. 384pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-1-250-32853-3. GRADES 8–Adult. HIGH ADDITIONAL.
Angeline Boulley continues to educate readers about life as a Native American in today’s world, while wrapping the story in drama and a dangerous mystery. Lucy Smith unexpectedly enters the foster care system at age thirteen after her father’s untimely death. Disturbing secrets from her stay at Hoppy Farm, a foster placement, are revealed as the story progresses. After an attempt on her life lands her hospitalized and unable to fend for herself, Lucy grudgingly teams up with two characters from Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter (2021): Daunis Fontaine and Jamie (John Jameson), a Native American lawyer, private investigator, and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) advocate. Throughout the book are Native women’s stories of children taken away by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Boulley exposes the utter disregard for Native culture, language, and family perpetrated by the United States government and the Catholic Church. Intertwining the mystery of who is following and threatening Lucy’s life with the agonizing stories of the Native mothers is tricky, complicated, and not always successful. Boulley is at her best when the story is more straightforward, indicting atrocities by celebrating the healing Native cultures we see now. Her writing is brilliant, she pulls no punches, and the tension is sustained as it builds to a heartbreaking yet hopeful conclusion. While this is a stand-alone novel, readers would benefit from first reading Firekeeper’s Daughter. Characters present as Ojibwe, Anishinaabe, and white. The author’s note gives current information about the ICWA and the ongoing struggle to reconnect Native children to their families.
Pauline Harris—San Francisco Public Library