Greetings to our YA reading community, and welcome to the third week of May. Our Weekend Pick is brought to us by another University of Missouri graduate student - and we are so thankful for their contributions this month!
 Eden Frick | Eden Frick is an aspiring educator pursuing her master's in English Education at the University of Missouri. She currently works as a substitute teacher in secondary schools, where she continues to develop her practice. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing or coaching basketball, listening to true crime podcasts, and spending time with family and friends. After completing her master's degree, she plans to teach either middle or high school English. |
Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley
Angeline Boulley’s Sisters in the Wind is a powerful YA mystery thriller that follows 18-year-old Lucy Smith, whose life has been shaped by loss and survival ever since her father’s death five years ago. As a ward of the state, Lucy has spent years moving through the foster system, learning to stay guarded and constantly alert.
 | That careful routine is disrupted when Mr. Jameson approaches Lucy at the diner where she works, introducing himself as an attorney who helps foster children reconnect with their indigenous heritage. His sudden interest unsettles Lucy and leads her to make the decision to run. However, before she can, her life is violently upended when a bomb explodes at the diner. In the aftermath, Lucy wakes up in the hospital, where Mr. Jameson and his friend Daunis are waiting for her. Here, they reveal that her father hid parts of her identity from her. Lucy is Ojibwe and has family she never knew about, including a late sister, siblings, and a grandmother. From there, Lucy is forced to face the identity that was hidden from her, as well as the fact that she is still not safe and is being followed. The novel moves between Lucy’s present as she recovers under the care of Mr. Jameson and Daunis and her past in the foster system. |
One of the most powerful elements of the novel is its focus on the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the role it plays in protecting indigenous children from being removed from their communities. Boulley makes it clear that Lucy’s story is not an individual case, but rather part of a larger history of indigenous children being separated from their families through foster care and adoption systems. The inclusion of ICWA helps frame the conversation around what justice and protection should look like, and what happens when the law is ignored or treated as inconvenient. The novel also touches on how institutions and systems like foster care do not always support young people in the ways they are meant to. Through Lucy’s experiences, Boulley highlights how systems designed to protect kids can still fail and leave young people to rely on themselves in situations where they should be supported and cared for.
| What makes Lucy such a strong protagonist is the way she feels real. She is not written as a flawless hero. She is angry, guarded, impulsive, and sometimes self-destructive, but those traits make sense because of what she has endured. This novel does not romanticize trauma or healing; it shows survival as extremely messy and complicated. Lucy has spent years learning that trust is dangerous, so when people genuinely want to help her, she struggles to believe them. However, the novel is not simply a story about trauma. It is also about reclamation. Lucy’s journey becomes a search for the truth and belonging. As she starts connecting to her culture and family, the book asks readers to consider what it means to rebuild a sense of self after years of instability and being uprooted. It emphasizes that identity is not something that is fixed or easily recovered, but something that can be rediscovered and redefined over time. |  Angeline Boulley |
This is the kind of novel that would absolutely keep students reading. The pacing is quick, the tension is constant, and every chapter leaves you wanting more. But what makes it worth teaching or recommending is the depth underneath the suspense. It invites readers to think critically about systems of care, the role of law and policy, and the long-term impact of identity being taken away.
Opportunities for the Classroom
- Explore how foster care is represented in the novel and how it shapes Lucy’s sense of safety, trust, and identity.
- Explore and discuss the Indian Child Welfare Act and its importance in protecting indigenous children and families.
- Use the novel to explore larger themes such as home, identity, belonging, survival, and justice.
- Track Lucy’s character development and how her understanding of identity changes throughout the novel.
- Examine how fear, trust, and survival influence decision-making.
- Discuss and explore how institutions meant to support young people can fail to provide stability or care.
- Pair the novel with nonfiction texts or memoirs about foster care systems, ICWA, and the historical and ongoing mistreatment of indigenous peoples in the U.S.
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