Elatsoe

Elatsoe

• Genre: Fiction; young adult fantasy
• Originally Published: 2020
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile HL610L-510L; grades 7-12
• Structure/Length: 36 chapters; approx. 362 pages; approx. 9 hours, 1 minute on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate America shaped by the magic of the Indigenous and immigrant groups living there. Ellie’s gift is raising the spirits of dead animals. When her cousin dies, Ellie, her best friend, and the memory of her six times great grandmother, Six-Great, must find the killer and solve the mystery of his death.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Indigenous genocide; cannibalism; child abduction; colonialism; death; animal death; gun violence; medical malpractice; mutilation; racial violence; racism       

Darcie Little Badger, Author

• Bio: Born in 1987; noted Lipan Apache writer and Earth scientist; uses Apache characters and themes in her writing; a voice in Indigenous Futurism (a literary movement among Indigenous artists and authors to write science fiction and fantasy from their historical and cultural perspectives); earned a bachelor’s degree in geosciences from Princeton University, graduating cum laude; earned a PhD in oceanography from Texas A&M University; serves as a delegate for her tribe to the National Congress of American Indians
• Other Works: A Snake Falls to Earth (2021)
• Awards: Nebula Award Finalist (2020); Whippoorwill Book Award (2021); Locus Award for Best First Novel (2021); Lodestar Award Finalist (2021); Ignyte Award Finalist (2021); American Indian Youth Literature Awards Honor Book (2022)