Dog Tracks

by Ruby Slipperjack

Abby is having trouble fitting in at Bear Creek Reserve. After having lived most of her life with her grandparents in town, it's definitely a transition moving back to the reserve. When Choom, her grandfather, falls ill, Abby must leave her best friends at school, her supportive grandparents, and her perfect pink bedroom, and adjust to living with her mom. But it's not only being back with Mom that is hard -- there's a new father, John, and a pesky half-brother, Blink. There is also a schoolroom full of kids who don't know her (and don't seem to want to), not to mention a completely different way of life that seems so traditional, so puzzling and complicated. But, with the help of the reserve's chief, Paulie, a puppy named Ki-Moot, and her parents' vision of a sled-dog tourist venture, Abby slowly begins to find her rhythm at Bear Creek. All she has to do is follow the dog tracks.

Genres: Indigenous, Young Adult

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ruby Slipperjack was born in Whitewater Lake, Ontario, where she was raised on traditional stories and crafts. Slipperjack attended Shingwauk Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie and high school in Thunder Bay, Ontario. She earned her B.A. and B.Ed. from Lakehead University in 1989. Slipperjack is also an accomplished painter. Ruby is from the Fort Hope Indian Band in Ontario. Currently, she is a faculty member in the Department of Indigenous Learning at Lakehead University.

Reviews

[Amy Mathers · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/dog-tra...

[Lauren Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was ok

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a coming of age novel about Abby, a young 13-year-old Anishinawbe girl. Abby has lived in town with her grandparents since she was seven. She has her own room in a white painted house, speaks Ojibwe with her grandfather, and attends the local public school where she has a tight group of friends. When her grandfather becomes ill, Abby is sent to live with her mother, stepfather and 6-year-old half-brother on the northern reserve. Abby finds it a hard transition. She misses her grandmother and friends, her little brother is annoying and the kids at school make fun of the way she mixes English words with Ojibwe. But as time passes, Abby begins to embrace the culture that she has missed while living in town. She becomes involved with the plan to set up a true Anishinawbe experience for tourists with her parents and their friends. As Abby learns traditions including beadwork, dog sledding, hunting, and more, she comes to treasure the rich culture that she learns from the people of the reserve. In the end Abby finds her place within the reserve and her family. Filled with detail and heart, this is an intimate look inside the rich culture of the Anishinawbe people of northern Canada.

[Clivemichael]

Detailed descriptive narrative, somewhat pedestrian

[Jen's Kindle · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF

Was reading to my grade 8 class and the story was not holding me or my class so we stopped.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back of the book suggests that this book is both a story and a description of life, and I found that the story part got lost to the point that I didn't want to continue.