Surviving the City

by Tasha Spillett, illustrated by Natasha Donovan & Donovan Yaciuk

tagged: canada, girls & women, coming of age, non-classifiable

Description

Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape—they’re so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez’s grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can’t stay with her anymore. With the threat of a group home looming, Dez can’t bring herself to go home and disappears. Miikwan is devastated, and the wound of her missing mother resurfaces. Will Dez’s community find her before it’s too late? Will Miikwan be able to cope if they don’t?

About the Authors

Tasha Spillett

New York Times–bestselling author Tasha Spillett, PhD, (she/her/hers) draws her strength from both her Inninew and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is a celebrated Afro-Indigenous educator, poet, and emerging scholar. Tasha is most heart-tied to contributing to community-led work that centres on land and water defence, and the protection of Indigenous women and girls. Her books include the award-winning graphic novel series Surviving the City and the celebrated children’s book, I Sang You Down from the Stars. @TashaSpillett

Natasha Donovan is a Métis illustrator with a focus on comics and children’s illustration. She has illustrated several award-winning children’s books including The Sockeye Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson) and the graphic novel Surviving the City by Tasha Spillett. She has a degree in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and has worked in academic and magazine publishing. She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington. Visit her at NatashaDonovan.com.

Since 1998, Donovan Yaciuk (he/him/his) has coloured books published by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse comics, and HighWater Press including the A Girl Called Echo and The Reckoner Rises series, as well as select stories in This Place: 150 Years Retold. Donovan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the University of Manitoba and began his career as a part of the legendary, now-defunct Digital Chameleon colouring studio. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, with his wife and two daughters.

Age:: 12 to 18
Grade:: 8 to 12

Editorial Reviews

Selected for 2020 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, an annual booklist of the best feminist books for young readers

— American Library Association (ALA)

Nominated for the Forest of Reading's Red Maple Award

— Ontario Library Association

Engrossing... [this story] remains a tribute to the missing and murdered and a clarion call to everyone else.

— Kirkus Reviews

Centering the strong hearts of Indigenous women and girls and shattering racist assumptions, Surviving the City is a beautiful, uncompromising honour song to those of us that not only survive the urban, but navigate through it with the courage of our Ancestors.

— Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, author of This Accident of Being Lost

Selected as an AIYLA Young Adult Honor Book

— American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA)

[A] haunting graphic novel... debut author Spillett and Donovan... present a story of girls growing up with the historical legacy of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people, particularly women and girls.

— Publishers Weekly

New ebooks From Canadian Indies

Surviving the City

by Tasha Spillett, illustrated by Natasha Donovan & Donovan Yaciuk

Tasha Spillett

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