Amanda Strong Libri

On a journey to uncover her family's story, Spotted Fawn travels through time and space to reclaim her connection to ancestors, language, and land, creating a path forward in this essential graphic novel. In the dreamworld, she witnesses a mountain of buffalo skulls, a haunting monument to the near extinction of the Plains bison—a tactic used to starve and contain Indigenous Peoples onto reservations. To confront the harsh realities of the past and reignite her connection to her people and the land, Spotted Fawn delves into her family history. Her darkroom transforms into a portal, allowing her to glimpse the lives of her relatives across four chapters that follow the phases of the moon. Time and space unfold before her as she is guided by her ancestors, enabling her to come into her own, much like the moon itself. Adapted from an acclaimed stop-motion animated film by Amanda Strong, this graphic novel brings the oral and written history of the Michif, Cree, Nakoda, and Anishinaabe Peoples and their cultural ties to the buffalo to life. Deeply resonant and beautifully illustrated, this retelling is essential reading. Backmatter by Dr. Sherry Farrell-Racette provides insights into Michif culture, history, and the injustices of colonialism.

"For seventeen-year-old Samantha Campbell, running back woods trails usually means freedom from her less-than-perfect life. That is, until the day a morning run turns into a living nightmare. When Samantha wakes up to find herself bound to a dirty, pinstriped mattress, she realizes she's anything but free. With a masked abductor repeatedly injecting her arm with an unknown substance while holding her captive, Samantha tries in vain to find out what he wants, but he refuses to speak. Until the day he breaks his silence and his twisted words are worse than what she'd imagined. He promises her one day she will fall in love with him but the best part will be that she won't know who he is ... until it's too late. Finding herself freed from captivity, with her captor still at large, Samantha is on guard against everything and everyone around her. Unfortunately, walling up her heart proves difficult when eighteen-year-old Blake Knightley moves in next door. When Samantha starts experiencing strange changes within her, she realizes her captor may have left her more damaged than she originally thought. Now she must turn to Blake for help in order to unearth the truth behind the monster who started this all ... or risk experiencing worse things than just falling in love"--Page 4 of cover