changing the air so much the earth shook and melted and crumbled,
harvesting a race for medicine." (pg. 47)
While the environmental degradation alone could result in the dystopia of The Marrow Thieves, it is but a fraction of the agony of the world Cherie Dimaline has created. It is a world that has gone beyond decline and into catastrophic collapse. The heinous racism against Indigenous Peoples coupled with the carnage perpetrated against them is terrifying but not unfamiliar. By telling this story in a dystopian world set decades into the future, Cherie Dimaline tells much more about the past. Still, within that horror, there is a wisdom of self and others, a pocket of compassion and understanding that might be the only hope.
"...running only works of you're moving towards something, not away. Otherwise, you'll never get anywhere." (pg. 217)
- 2018 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor book
- 2018 Canada Reads Selection
- #8 of the 2018 CCRSB Teen Reader’s Choice Award
- 2017 Globe and Mail Best Book
- 2017 Kirkus Prize winner for Young People's Literature
- 2017 Governor General's Literary Awards (Canadian)
- Killer of Enemies series by Joseph Bruchac
- Brother Eagle, Sister Sky : A Message From Chief Seattle by Chief Seatle and Susan Jeffers (J 970.004/Sea)