Adventure Through the Painting
One of my favourite storytellers is David A. Robertson. He has an incredible ability to bring the reader right into the worlds he creates through his writing. The job of the writer is to transport the reader to take them away from their own lives to live within the pages however briefly. David A. Robertson has such a power within his writing. I am always transported be it to Wounded Sky First Nation, Canada in the early 1900s or Misewa. I am always invested in his characters, they are friends and family members and I am rooting for them to succeed and frustrated when they bumble about and make wrong turns.
In David A. Robertson’s new middle grade series The Misewa Saga, this first book, The Barren Grounds, takes the reader through a Narniaesque portal to Misewa. The reader experiences the harsh reality of Misewa through the eyes of Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous foster children who have been thrust together by the system. Currently living with Katie and James, foster parents who are trying too hard to make them feel at home, they both feel lost.When they arrive in Misewa they find it plagued in a perpetual winter because of harmful things that happened in the past. Morgan and Eli set off on a quest, along with Ochek and Arik, two animals with human characteristics, to bring back the Green Time or summer. In Morgan there is so much anger. She has been in the system for so long she no longer remembers her home or her traditions, she is lost and angry and misplaces that anger at times. In Eli there is sadness. He has only just entered the foster system and clearly remembers where he was taken from and his traditions. He immediately feels at home in Misewa where Morgan takes some time to remember and begin to heal.
The Barren Grounds is such a fantastic book for those who love fantasy stories as there are so many layers in this book. There is the commentary on the foster care system, particularly how it treats Indigenous children. The Cree language is woven throughout the story, linking to David A. Robertson’s heritage and creates a story with elements of Cree tradition, Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations. Readers will have access to greater knowledge of the past and how choices can have major impacts on the future.
The Barren Grounds was a story I truly needed at a time when reading was very difficult. It was David A. Robertson’s storytelling that brought me back to my love for stories. I am so incredibly excited to continue the journey through Misewa and cannot even begin to imagine where Morgan and Eli’s story will take us.
