Sad beginning.

The first chapter of the book is so sad that I almost put it aside for another time, but the prose was beautiful so I kept reading. I also just had to know how the lives of two little girls abandoned to the County by their alcoholic mother would turn out. This first chapter is told by Azure Sky, the youngest of Loretta’s two daughters . While most of the alternating narratives are Azure Sky’s, the points of view of a cast of Ojibwe women of the Mozhay Point Reservation in Minnesota, where Loretta is from, tell much of the story of their people’s past as well as Loretta’s . The relationships seemed complicated and it was hard to tell how the characters were related - was it as blood relatives or by “the Indian way”? It didn’t matter. These connections, these ties that the women had for their own are ties that bind, ties that reflect love and care and belonging and concern, concern and hope that Azure Sky and Rainfall Dawn would not become like other lost girls of their people, like their mother, Loretta.

Their mother gave them the of gift of beautiful names and a single beautiful memory to sustain them through some very hard times, both when in foster care and when they are taken into the heart and home of Dolly Johnson. Azure Sky is a character I won’t soon forget. She is smart and strong and that is evident from the beginning as she cares for her older sister Rain who suffers emotionally, mentally and physically. It hard to say more without giving more plot details. So I’ll just say that this is more than a story of two little girls who grow up in the shadow of their mother’s life. It is more than the story of the people of the Mozhay Point Reservation. It is in many ways a story reflecting the history of Native Americans. It is a heartbreaking story that uplifted me and I’m glad I stuck with it. I hope to read other books by Linda LeGarde Grover.