I appreciate receiving an advance copy of IN THE NIGHT OF MEMORY by Linda LeGarde Grover. The first chapter is written from the point of view of Azure Sky, a Native American girl whose mother, an alcoholic, is poverty stricken and has to give 3 year-old Azure Sky and 4 year-old Rainey Dawn to a county welfare agency. The first chapter caught my attention right away. I wanted to read more about the two girls and their mother Loretta. Instead, the next five chapters were from three other characters’ points of view. These three characters gave family history information which was beneficial, but I felt it was confusing also and perhaps too many members of family from generations past were introduced at his point. I kept looking back at the family history tree and information at the beginning of the book, and the story kind of lost its flow for me. I had not wanted to get separated from Azure, Rainy, and Loretta so quickly.
My comments above do not mean I did not like the book. I think this book is a worthwhile one to read. I appreciated all the information about the Native American culture which I gleaned from the book. I like the way the tribe members took care of their own and felt responsibility for each other even if not related by blood. The foster care situations Azure and Rainy ended up in were not pleasant for the most part. I’m glad Native Americans felt the need to push for the Indian Child Welfare Act. Azure and Rainy’s relatives, Vernon and Dolly, searched for them and used this act to be able to get them out of foster care and into their own home. Life was still not easy for them but much better than what they were first experiencing.
This was not an easy book to read with feelings of sadness and loss running deeply at times. There’s the realization it is hard to break the cycle of poverty, but there is hope, too.
My comments above do not mean I did not like the book. I think this book is a worthwhile one to read. I appreciated all the information about the Native American culture which I gleaned from the book. I like the way the tribe members took care of their own and felt responsibility for each other even if not related by blood. The foster care situations Azure and Rainy ended up in were not pleasant for the most part. I’m glad Native Americans felt the need to push for the Indian Child Welfare Act. Azure and Rainy’s relatives, Vernon and Dolly, searched for them and used this act to be able to get them out of foster care and into their own home. Life was still not easy for them but much better than what they were first experiencing.
This was not an easy book to read with feelings of sadness and loss running deeply at times. There’s the realization it is hard to break the cycle of poverty, but there is hope, too.