Red Bird Danced

With lyrical verse and powerful emotion, Dawn Quigley (Ojibwe) tells the story of urban Native kids who find strength in connection with those who came before and in the hope that lets them take flight.

Ariel and Tomah have lived in the city's intertribal housing complex all their lives. But for both of them, this Dagwaagin (Autumn) season is different than any before.

From his bench outside the front door of his building, Tomah watches his community move around him. He is better at making people laugh than he is at schoolwork, but often it feels like his neighbor Ariel is the only one who really sees him, even in her sadness.

Ariel has always danced ballet because of her Auntie Bineshiinh and loves the way dance makes her feet hover above the ground like a bird. But ever since Auntie went missing, Ariel's dancing doesn't feel like flying.

As the seasons change and the cold of winter gives way to spring's promise, Ariel and Tomah begin to change too as they learn to share the rhythms and stories they carry within themselves.

This first middle grade novel by Dawn Quigley is a tour de force. She is known for her American Indian Youth Literature Award-winning Jo Jo Makoons chapter book series and young adult novel Apple in the Middle.

About the author. Dawn Quigley is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, North Dakota. Both her first book in the Jo Jo Makoons series, Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend, and her debut YA novel, Apple in the Middle, were awarded American Indian Youth Literature Honors. She is a PhD education university faculty member and a former K-12 reading and English teacher, as well as an Indian Education program codirector.