Still catching up on reviews of my 2020 reads so I’ve got more mini reviews for you this week! A couple more books I enjoyed last year, and that are all quick reads if you’re looking for shorter length books.
Pemmican Wars by Katherena Vermette, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
I’ve had this series on my list for a little while but didn’t realize just how recent a release it is (the third book came out in 2020). So I’m looking forward to continuing with the series as new books come out. My review here will be based on the first 3 books in this series, A Girl Called Echo (but no spoilers!), as each book is quite short so it’s difficult to review their impact on their own.
We follow Echo, a young Métis girl living in a foster home and struggling with being separated from her mother. As her history teacher starts his lesson on the Pemmican Wars, Echo finds herself transported to the 1800s and gets to experience this history first-hand. A bit of dream-like fantasy mixed in with history. Each book tackles a different event or time period in Métis history so readers can follow this timeline through to the present. There are some fun Easter eggs in the illustrations too, like real books on the shelves when Echo goes to the library that I loved being able to identify.
The only thing holding me back is that they’re very, very short! They’re all under 50 pages and there are several spreads in the book that are solely illustrations. As someone really interested in this history, I would’ve liked a deeper dive but I do appreciate these books as a starter so I can seek out more sources, which are included in bibliographies in each!
