She Holds Up the Stars

by Sandra Laronde

The last thing that twelve-year-old Misko wants to do is to move away from the city to spend time on the rez with her grandmother. She feels strangely compelled to go to the place where her dreams have been tugging at her to come home. Maybe she can finally find out what happened to her mother, who mysteriously disappeared when she was four years old. Misko discovers her unique ability to connect to a spirited horse named Mishtadim who is being violently broken in by the rancher next door and his son, Thomas. Although Misko and Thomas challenge one another, their friendship is forged through the taming of the wild horse. In the process, she realizes the true meaning of belonging and that you can never truly leave home.

She Holds Up the Stars is a powerful story of reconciliation and the interwoven threads that connect us to family, to the land, and to our own sense of self.

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Animals, Indigenous, Canada, Fiction, School

216 pages, Hardcover

Published May 24, 2022

Reviews

[Read by Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

After twelve-year-old Misko experiences a trauma in Winnipeg, she decides to spend the summer at her former home with her kokum on a First Nation reservation. As Misko revives relationships with former friends, she also reconnects with the Earth and nature, her language and culture, her spirituality, and her ancestry. Along the way, many reflections on the damaging impact of racism, residential schools, and murdered and missing Indigenous women (MMIW) emerge in context to the events of the story, particularly as Misko navigates her trauma and grief, and as she tries to convince a neighbouring rancher that it is cruel and unnecessary to break a horse's spirit to make it "useful."

She Holds Up the Stars is one of those stories that works well in theory, but less so in execution. The author tackles a lot of big topics, both narratively and thematically, which left me feeling like I'd just finished a meal of hors d'oeuvres: a lot to experience, but nothing to satisfy. (I simultaneously reflect on my own colonial views of narrative to ponder who is in the wrong here). While I was interested in Misko's healing from trauma and cultural reintegration, I found the plotline with the horse and neighbour to be distractingly unbelievable. Ironically, I most appreciated the unresolved storylines, as I imagine moving forward without resolution to trauma is, sadly, an ongoing reality for residential school survivors (and their families) and the families of MMIW. In spite of my humdrum response to the novel, I can see recommending this book to students: She Holds Up the Stars provides an entry point for curious young readers to reflect upon the ancestral and cultural heritage of First Nations people and the atrocities committed by the Canadian government.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

She Holds Up the Stars connects to culture, land, and family of the Anishinaabe and Objiwe indigenous peoples of Canada and United States. Misko, a Anishinaabe, Objiwe indigenous girl, encounters a spirited horse named Mishtadim, wrestles a new relationship with a neighbor boy named Thomas, while embracing her inner cultural strengths and gifts.

[Savannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

This book was slow at the start, but the last 100 pages were better.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Misko was just 4 years old, her mother disappeared without a trace, one of thousands of indigenous women and girls who go missing each year. Now 12 years old, Misko, a member of the Ojibway tribe, is sent to spend the summer with her Kokum (grandma) on the reservation after she escapes a kidnapping attempt in Winnipeg, where she now lives with her aunt. It's here that Misko connects with her ancestors, their customs, and her heritage. While there, Misko meets Thomas, the Caucasian boy next door whose cruel father trains and sells horses and they strike up an unlikely friendship, bonding over Mishtadim, a horse that Misko has an indescribable connection to.

This book was very enjoyable. As part of the backstory, we learn of this family's connection to the Canada's residential schools, "schools" where indigenous children were sent after they were forcibly removed from their homes, places filled with abuse and death, designed to break indigenous kids and kill the Indian in them. While heartbreaking, this only made the story that much more authentic. With themes such as racism, abuse, and discovering one's cultural identity, this book would be appropriate for middle school children and up.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Bibliohiker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I like that the author puts in Anishinaabe or Ojibwa words and then translates them. It’s also great that one is learning a little bit of a new language. The various traditions that were weaved into the story were interesting.I like how the story tells how Native kids were taken to boarding schools to break and change them. This story is set in Canada but it happened in the US as well. How people could think it was ok to take kids from their homes to schools that wanted to erase their culture and heritage because they wanted to re- educate the kids was wrong. To think one way of life is better than another is wrong. If White men in power had tried to learn and see the Native ways and culture weren’t that much different than their own; I think history would’ve turned out differently

[Niki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misko returns to the rez to spend the summer with her kokum. There she reconnects with old friends, family, and a very special horse next door that she is compelled to save from mistreatment. She Holds Up the Stars tackles abuse, racism, and cruelty, while incorporating reconciliation, family, and love.

One issue I had with She Holds Up the Stars is how ignorant the white boy is of anything Indigenous. I have to infer that the novel is actually historical fiction and there is an underlying message of how far we have come in our understandings, re-education, and reconciliation.

She Holds Up the Stars is a 2024 MYRCA Northern Lights nominee. I'd recommend it for readers in grades 5-8.

3+ stars (rounded up)

[Lori Emilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

12-year-old Misko is spending the summer with her grandmother on the reserve while grappling with the disappearance of her mother several years ago. Her grandmother's home is parallel to Thomas, a boy who works for his rancher father, who is physically abusive to Thomas. Misko feels a connection to the horse they are trying to break, and Misko sets out to save both Thomas and the horse.

I appreciate this story. We need more books written by and featuring characters who are Indigenous. There is so much going on in this story (grief, trauma, alcoholism, racism, MMIWG, residential schools...) and I think the author took on too much. Too many plot lines to follow make for a heavy read.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Annick Press for an advance digital copy.

[Ainslee Card · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, I really liked how it had a lot of stuff about indigenous people, but it wasn’t the main focus of the book. I kinda liked how it was just a side part. However I thought this book sort of dragged on, and I got bored of it and stopped reading it and then it took so much motivation to finish it. It’s definitely too young for me and I knew that, I just wanted a quick read. That’s not what I got. I got a lowkey boring painful read. If I hadn’t stopped reading it for like a week I think I would have enjoyed it more.

[Samantha Sissman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story She Holds Up the Stars is about 12 year old Misko who went to her grandmother's house for the summer. Misko is a black girl who once got slapped by a very mean man. Miskos mother ran away when she was young, she never new what happened. As Misko is on her summer vacation at her grandmother's house she notices there is a farm next door. She sees that the man on the farm was treating a horse very badly and thinking about killing him. Misko, her adopted cousin, and a boy Thomas (who was that bad man's son) try to figure a way to stop the man from putting the horse down. Will they suffer through the man's meanness or will they fight to keep the horse alive......

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this middle grade novel.

There's so much to love in this book. It's perfect for horse lovers, and those who love an emotional book. Misko's journey is a great one.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a simple story really, but profound and I loved it. It's not a great story unless it makes you cry - and this one did!

[Tanya Prax · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't care for the writing... oh well! Very well reviewed by Kirkus... but not for me.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet story, though I preferred the play by Laronde more

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you start reading this to learn what happened to Misko's Mom, know that the book ends without a resolution. Instead, this is Misko's story about discovering if home is with her aunt in the city or with her grandma on the reservation, making a new friend and finding her superpower she has a special way with animals.
Give this to your readers who are looking for stories with Native American voices or those who cannot get enough stories about horses.

[Kyleigh McCune · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great middle grade book. I always love the way indigenous people speak and write about the natural world and our place in it.

[Martha Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an uneven book. The plot is a bit far fetched and loose ends abound. But maybe that works. This book EXCELS in sharing the thoughts and ideas of a contemporary indigenous girl coping with the loss of her mother (she’s one of the indigenous women who have disappeared.) This book is a deep dive into the contemporary Anishinaabe way of life and how it entwines with nature and nature’s creatures. I was sucked in and sort of amazed. Ms. Laronde uses an “anne mccaffrey” like method for the girl to communicate with the horse, maybe magical realism, maybe fantasy. Read it to learn and understand a different way of apprehending the world (if you are not indigenous). Read it to see yourself (if you are.)