Beyond the Green by Sharlee Mullins Glenn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There are far too many stories of white people saying indigenous children, giving them a better life.
Indigenous children do not need to be rescued.
I was worried, when I started to read this book, though the description hinted otherwise, that this book would be like that. That Britta kept devising plans to save her foster-care sister from returing to her birth mom made me worried that perhaps this wasn’t the story I hoped it was.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Britta, a Mormon child, feels that Dori would be better off with her family who had had her for the first four years of her life. She can’t imagine that the Indians could take as good care of her “sister” as her family did.
But, as all good books do, this one allowed Britta to grow and change, and see things from another point of view.
And her wise grandpa had a great quote:
Differ’nt don’t necessirly mean worse, Britta-girl,” he said. “Sometimes it means better. Sometimes it just means differ’nt. And thank goodness for differ’nt. Too much sameness would make for a might bland world.”
The author made this all feel very real, and very special, probably because it is a fictionalized version of her own foster sister, that was returned to her birth mother.
Odd, every day elements make it very real.
Highly recommend this for school libaries, public libraries, and just for good old-fashioned reading.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.