Soldier Sister, Fly Home by Nancy Bo Flood, illustrations by Shonto Begay

Tess, 13, is having a hard time trying to come to terms with just who she is.  Part Navajo, part white, she doesn’t feel like she belongs in either world.  Despite being a champion-fast runner, Tess’s teammates at the white school she attends in Flagstaff, Arizona, call her names like ‘Pokeyhontas,’ never seeing her as anything other than an Indian.  But when she returns home to the Rez, she never feels Navajo enough.

Tess has been annoyed at her sister Gaby, 19, for joining the Army after her friend Lori Piestewa was killed in Iraq, the first Native American woman to fall in combat.  Now, however, Tess can’t wait for Gaby to come home on a two week leave.  Maybe Gaby can help Tess sort things out for herself.  But Gaby is no sooner home, than she must tell her family that her two week leave has been cancelled, she is being deployed to Iraq, and only has a few days home.   

Tess is beyond angry at her sister for leaving, an anger that is compounded when Gaby asks her to take care of Blue, her spirited stallion, and a horse that Tess simply does not like - and the feeling seems to be mutual. 

For the first time, Gaby won’t be going with their grandmother to sheep camp at the bottom of the canyon for the summer.  Tess, who has never spent the whole summer in the canyon with them, decides to accompany her grandmother, her sheep and mares, and Blue this year.  Tess has never ridden Blue by herself, always just leading him by the reins.  But on day, while out exploring the canyon with him, a cold, soaking rain begins and, remembering her grandmother’s words that a galloping horse is the fastest way home, Tess rides Blue back to camp.  From then on, the two begin to make friends with each other.  Now, Tess determines to find the secret waterfall where she and Gaby spent precious time together, and to send some sand from it to her sister - a reminder of those times.

Little by little, Tess begins to come to terms with who she is as she develops more confidence riding Blue and through serious talks getting to really know her grandmother, a woman who knows a lot about who she is and the people who see her a just an Indian.

When tragedy strikes, Tess is faced with a difficult decision, one that will require all the strength she has, but one that will ultimately allow Tess to begin to discover just who she really is.

Soldier Sister, Fly Home is more than just a good coming of age story about family, tradition, culture. It is also a story about 'home' in the literal and metaphorical sense.  Above the canyon, the mesa, is home to the Tess who lives there in the world of school, cell phones, malls.  As the summer goes by, the canyon, a world of hogans, animals, unfettered nature, slowly begins to feel like home to the Tess, who loves the beauty of it.  And it is her grandmother who helps Tess reconcile these two different worlds within herself, to feel at home in both.  

But it is Blue who finally takes Tess 'home.'  Gaby has told Tess that if she ever got lost riding Blue, he would always find his home if she loosened the reins and let him.  And he literally does, twice when they are out riding in the canyon.  But Blue also takes Tess home in the figurative sense when she is forced to make a decision about him that will determine who she is from than on. 

All of this is told in Nancy Bo Flood's beautiful lyrical storytelling style.  I lived in Arizona for four years, and really fell in love the land.  I think you will find some of the most breathtaking places on earth there. Flood's beautiful descriptions really made me feel an acute homesickness for the Arizona landscape.  Flood has made her setting every bit as much a well-developed main character as she has Tess and her grandmother.

And while I loved Soldier Sister, Fly Home, I did think it was not without one flaw that really bothered me.  I felt that Tess's grandmother was perhaps too stereotypical, sounding like the wise Indian speaking in aphorisms.  Ironically, this seems to happen in the canyon than up on the mesa, where she seems more like a real character and less like a stereotype.  

I should mention also that there are scenes in Soldier Sister, Fly Home that may upset readers sensitive to animals being killed, though it is never done gratuitously or cruelly in this novel.   Also, there are a number of Navajo terms used throughout the story and there is a Glossary and Pronunciation Guide at the back to the book.  

A Writing Prompt Guide has been prepared by Nancy Bo Flood and can be download HERE 

This book is recommended for readers age 11+

This book was an ARC sent to me by the author

Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo by Nancy Bo Flood, photographs by Jan Sonnenmair

 I once lived in Phoenix, Arizona for about 4 years and while I was there, I did a lot of things I never thought this NYC girl would do.  Like, I went tubing down the ice cold Salt River with friends, I rode a horse through the Superstition Mountains and I ate more Navajo Fry Bread than any human should (because it was so good).  And I marveled at the beauty of the Arizona desert every single day.

But one of the other things I did was go to the rodeo - the annual rodeo in Prescott, AZ, and the Navajo County Fair rodeo in Holbrook, Arizona.  So naturally when I saw Nancy Bo Flood's new book Cowboy Up! Ride the Navajo Rodeo, I knew this was a book I was going to have to read.

In poetry, prose and wonderful color photographs all working together in tandem, Cowboy Up! tells the story of going to the rodeo from the point of view of the children going to and participating in the rodeo events for youngsters.  The book begins with a poem called Tomorrow capturing perfectly the night before excitement that always makes sleeping almost impossible.  The story continues through the next day and all the events of a rodeo, including the very moving Grand Entry and ever the Midway Walk, which was always my favorite part of any rodeo:

A young buckaroo with fry bread

"Hey, what's this?

I sashay back,
nose sniffing,
stomach growling.
Going to buy me some
crisp hot fry bread,
grease still popping, sweet honey
oozing..."




Cowboy Up! ends with the trip home, but does our narrator come home with a champion?

Though the poetry can be a little uneven in places, the expressive snappy lines should still have a great deal of appeal to young readers.  And Sonnenmair's photography is just breathing taking at time, just look at the cover photo or the one about of the Grand Entry with that beautiful rainbow in the background.

It really is just this grand

I especially liked the implication of the title of this book.  Simply put, even if you go home without a winner's ribbon, the lesson carried in this book is a most important one: Cowboy Up! means when things are tough and don't go your way, you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and keep on trying.  And a rodeo is the perfect place for understanding the meaning of Cowboy Up.

There isn't much to choose from in the world of books about Native Americans, which make this particularly welcome book.  Even if you don't care much for rodeos, it will give you a window into one exciting part of life for Navajo children.  Luckily for us, Award winning storyteller Nancy Bo Flood has spent time living on the Navajo Nation Reservation and has already written several books about the Navajo people.  Cowboy Up! is her latest contribution about the very interesting, very family oriented culture of the Navajo Nation.

Cowboy Up! is definitely a book that should be on your reading list.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

Cowboy Up! has an excellent PDF activity guide created with the Common Core in mind by Donna Gonzales

Nonfiction Monday is hosted this week by Jennifer at the Jean Little Library

This is book 4 of my 2013 Nonfiction Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Kit Lit Frenzy