👶👶👶👶: Looking for Smoke, by K.A. Cobell

I get so excited for new authors when they hit it out of the park with their debut novels! Pop off K.A. Cobell! This story was powerful and truly demanded my attention from the first page. Although it is considered a YA novel, it is smartly written and incredibly informative. As an OwnVoices author, Ms. Cobell has written a murder mystery with heart and substance. I learned so much about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement, which advocates for the end of violence against Native women. The data shared in this novel is staggering: 𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍 𝙄𝙉 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀 Native women have experienced violence, and their murder rate is 𝙏𝙀𝙉 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀𝙎 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙉𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝘼𝙇 𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙍𝘼𝙂𝙀!!! Can we just take a moment to digest that? That is absolutely horrifying and unacceptable. Thankfully, more light is being shed on this tragedy: President Biden selected May 5th as Missing Murdered & Indigenous People day, and more and more people are recognizing the seriousness of these crimes happening right here in our backyard. We can not just stand by and allow this to happen to these women, and must spread awareness in any way we can.

Many thanks to partners, Harper Collins and NetGalley for this gifted review copy. What an important read!

Read 6/16/24