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divineblkpearl 's review for:
Pemmican Wars
by Katherena Vermette
'Pemmican Wars' is the first graphic novel in a series titled A Girl Named Echo centering on 13 year old Métis girl named Echo Desajardins. I picked up this book cause seeing Indigenous protagonists in books (and furthermore comics/graphic novels in the mainstream publishing circles) isn't something I see everyday. Also seeing disabled characters (Echo wears a hearing aid) and youth in foster care situations adds depth to her as a character and makes her someone a lot of kids I know can relate to.
Echo is commuting and going to school just trying to make it and survive and one day in her history class she's transported to the past in another time and another place. She finds herself in the Qu'Applelle Valley in 1814 right before a bison hunt goes down. For here the narrative is exciting and interesting: Echo is a time traveler coming and going back to the past and experiencing life as one of her Métis kin, or possible ancestors. These pages bring all types of emotions to the front as they are beautiful and heartwarming and also saddening. Echo is a girl who feels cut off her her heritage, her mother and who is she supposed to be.
So as a lover of reading up on the histories of people of color around the world, indigenous folks included--this offering in comic book form is a great intro to the indigenous people that made their home in what we know now as Western Canada. The timeline of the Pemmican Wars at the end of book including the two pages of other Metis info was a great touch. I think this is easily digestible for the YA crowd. Also having a Metis female writer handling Echo's story proved to be a good look. Yet as a reader, reviewer and consumer of comics I feel the pacing is a bit off. And the narrative is just a bit too weak with less than fifty pages to tell this first part of the story. I think this would be been served better couple with the second part of this series.
Echo is commuting and going to school just trying to make it and survive and one day in her history class she's transported to the past in another time and another place. She finds herself in the Qu'Applelle Valley in 1814 right before a bison hunt goes down. For here the narrative is exciting and interesting: Echo is a time traveler coming and going back to the past and experiencing life as one of her Métis kin, or possible ancestors. These pages bring all types of emotions to the front as they are beautiful and heartwarming and also saddening. Echo is a girl who feels cut off her her heritage, her mother and who is she supposed to be.
So as a lover of reading up on the histories of people of color around the world, indigenous folks included--this offering in comic book form is a great intro to the indigenous people that made their home in what we know now as Western Canada. The timeline of the Pemmican Wars at the end of book including the two pages of other Metis info was a great touch. I think this is easily digestible for the YA crowd. Also having a Metis female writer handling Echo's story proved to be a good look. Yet as a reader, reviewer and consumer of comics I feel the pacing is a bit off. And the narrative is just a bit too weak with less than fifty pages to tell this first part of the story. I think this would be been served better couple with the second part of this series.