Illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight
4 stars
A delightful picture book centered on hope, community, and recovery.
River is excited for powwow day. But still recovering from an unnamed illness, she is too tired to join in the dancing. Finding strength in the drum beat and the remembering the meaning of the dances, River feels the power of the celebration and knows she will dance again.
This book is beautiful. It emphasizes accepting limitations while also being included and supported. The artwork is absolutely stunning. I loved the use of color and amount of detail. Each page is rich with texture.
River’s illness is alluded to without being named (her hair is still short and she is often tired). I actually think this is a strength of the text. The book isn’t focused on her actual illness, but rather her finding her connection to the powwow again. Leaving it unnamed takes the focus off the illness and centers it on River’s current experience. It’s also a nice example of normalizing a respect for other’s health information, allowing them to share what they want to and not feeling entitled to knowing someone’s diagnosis or details they don’t want to share.
At the end of the book is more information on powwows including important elements such as the arena, emcee, and Grand Entry as well as different types of dances. There is also a short list of sources.
A beautiful story with rich illustrations and lovely messages.