I found the native language used in such large amounts continually throughout the book made it impossible to read comfortably. The actual story and description were excellent which is why I persisted, but I cannot understand why the native language was used in that way as I am sure many people will not bother to read it because of that issue. This is an important part of history that needs to be told and read about, without barriers to doing this.

The fact that this book is YA is such a great feature. The ability tell this much needed story to a younger audience is exactly what this generation and world needs. A heartbreaking story that will stay with you for a long time.

Interesting plot and story line. The use of native language without translation was confusing at times - I wish there had been translation to accompany it. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!

This is the first part of a more extensive discussion on my book blog, https://marketgardenreader.wordpress.com/2023/02/07/wiijiwaaganag-more-than-brothers-by-peter-razor-a-tale-of-historical-us-indigenous-boarding-schools-and-friendship”.

When I saw this was a story about the friendship between an Ojibwe boy and an immigrant European boy in the Native American boarding school system, I immediately wanted to read it. It’s a theme that keeps coming up in my reading and it’s something that I was certainly never taught about in my British school. Yet in every case I’ve read of so far, the countries that enforced these shameful laws forcibly removing indigenous children from their parents, their language and their culture were at one time British colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and (at one remove), now the USA. However, this book wasn’t the residential school novel I had expected as much of it is set outside the school.

“One day, maybe, we are friends, wiijiwaaganag.” Says Niizh Eshkanag to Roger. This CD explains the title of the novel. Wiijiwaagan means a friend, someone who are will stay together throughout life.

This novel is not an easy read. Not so much because of the subject matter, though cruelty, corporal punishment and an incident resulting in severe injury and death of pupils all occur. It has more to do with the way the story is told. The introductory section lasts too long, with too much Ojibwe included for the casual reader. The friendship between the two main characters did develop, but was struck up in a peculiar manner, as rivals on the sports field. They then bonded when trusted to go out in the wilds to look for a younger boy who ran away after punishment. This is when the pace picked up and I became more engaged with finding out what would happen next. Later Roger disobeyed his aunt and uncle to visit Niizh Eshkanag during the summer holiday, when most students returned to their parents’ villages. With nowhere to go, it turned into an adventure as the two boys had to make contact with various family members and avoid being captured by various people trying to recapture Roger, spurred on by a reward offered by his uncle. This lead to some thrilling tales of derring-do, outwitting the people on their trail. So eventually it does turn into an adventure story, but it takes too long to do so. Much of the feel-good conclusion to the story also relies on nasty Aunt Helen mending her ways when Roger was missing.

<b>Overall impression:</b> In spite of its many faults, this is a book worth having for insights into the contrasts between Anishinaabe teaching and encouragement and white discipline, coercion and physical punishment. I enjoyed it and learnt lots of random facts about the Anishinaabe culture, for instance, how they used tobacco as a quick offering of thanks to a higher being and likewise paused at dawn and dusk in greeting. It actually fits in rather well with the Judeo Christian admonition to constantly praise God, difficult if you expect full-blown prayers, as well as being less cumbersome than the Islamic tradition of prayer five times a day. Just sprinkle a little powdered tobacco! For someone who is interested in languages, or who is learning Ojibwe, the way the book places the two languages together is worthwhile. For others, it is a distraction. I can only see it being read in a classroom situation. And it would make a great film, but with the amount of violence, it would have to be pitched at adult audiences, though none of the violence is prolonged or gory. I’m glad I read it, but it’s certainly not for everyone. As a reminder of a legacy it has definitely earned its place.

Disclaimer: I received an e-book for free from NetGalley. This review expresses my honest opinions of the book after reading.

Content warnings: violence towards children, including child abuse, child homicide, and forced assimilation/cultural genocide. Period-typical racism.

Am I glad I read this book?
Yes, 100%.There are many parts that will stay with me.

Am I likely to read it again for pleasure?
No. But if an audiobook version comes out, I will definitely buy it just for the pleasure of hearing all the Ojibwemowin spoken aloud.

Am I likely to recommend this book to others?
For adults, I could imagine recommending it to others with a pre-established interest and grounding in Native American history. I would not recommend it to someone as their first introduction to learning about residential schools or Own Voices literature. For kids (ostensibly the target audience), I could imagine using it as a text in a class where I had the ability to give plenty of context/support and time for discussion. I absolutely would not just give this book to a kid to read on their own.

All told, this book was a difficult read in a lot of ways, but I still got a lot out of it. My 4-star rating is my compromise between my feeling that I got 5 stars worth of substance out of it, but objectively don't expect others to like it more than 3 stars.

Challenges:

The story-telling style and dialogue is starkly straightforward, to the point of sometimes feeling over-simplified. There are many moments of descriptive beauty that stand out wonderfully against this spare background, but the dialogue was really hard for me to get past.

Speaking of my difficulties with dialogue, there are huge, huge swathes of dialogue in Ojibwemowin (often summarized/translated immediately after) in this book. In principle, I am super on-board with non-English languages being preserved, celebrated, utilized, and included in books for English audiences. In practice, I am not good at reading long stretches of text in a language I do not know how to pronounce-- my internal reading-aloud voice doesn't know what to do with it and just goes silent, so I end up inadvertently skipping over anything longer than about 3 words in a row. But if I have a pronunciation guide or can hear examples of the spoken language, my ear starts to be able to make sense of how the language works/feels. (Not sure if this holds true for other folks-- I'm definitely an auditory/kinetic learner.) There was no table of contents in my ARC, and so it wasn't until I'd finished the book that I realized there was a glossary (though still no pronunciation guide) and suggested online resources for learning Ojibwe. If you do decide to tackle this book, I strongly recommend skipping to the appendices first (there's also a very useful short historical timeline and cast of characters that I wish I'd known about beforehand).

My understanding from the very brief foreword and from other reviewers' comments is that this book was written by the author as an attempt to manifest a less harmful version of history. This resonates with me deeply as a thing one does to work through trauma, but I don't know that I feel good about it then becoming a fairly un-nuanced published work that people will come to with varying levels of understanding that that's what it is. I am deeply concerned that, like the movie Green Book, there is a certain audience of people who will read this and see only the "we can all just get along!" and "see, some white people are good!" messages without understanding the broader picture and how even the "nice" whites are still operating to uphold an inherently violent system.

At no point does the book address, even obliquely, Roger's privilege in being able to take on and put off an Anishnaabe identity at will. The "going native" trope is common from white authors, of course, and I was surprised and disheartened to see that here it wasn't given any closer scrutiny.

The good:

All my hesitations aside, the bulk of this book really spoke to me. There is just such a treasure trove of details about family and cultural life. It's a very grounded-feeling portrayal of an Indigenous community persisting in the face of overwhelming pressure to just hurry up and die out already. As a person whose own life and identity has been so deeply marked by the forces of colonization and cultural genocide, there is something intensely healing to me in being able to read even the simple details about what people ate, the clothes they wore, the ways they passed down their cultural identity and traditions.

The persistent thread of violence in the story is painful, but it felt realistic and authentic, and actually this was where the very flat affect of the narrative helped make it (for me, anyways) less traumatizing to read. It never felt overly gory or voyeuristic, and for that I was grateful. The author also did an excellent job of framing quite young people as being agents of their own (and their peers') bodily self-preservation. There is not a single scene where an adult is the one protecting a child from immediate physical harm-- it's kids rescuing and helping each other, which I think I would have found really empowering if I had been reading it as a child.

I also loved the descriptions of kids living on their own in a pre-industrialized wilderness. It gave me echoes of the feeling I used to get from reading Gary Paulsen and Jean Craighead George as a kid, but it's a lovely change to be hearing such stories without the added layers of appropriation and exotification. There are so many things I struggled with in this book, but I want to give full credit to the the author for his understanding of young teens as being thinking, feeling human beings-- needing love and support, yes, but also capable of astonishing levels of agency and survival.

Author Peter Razor first wrote the award-winning While the Locust Slept, a memoir chronicling his time as a ward at the State Public School (orphanage) in Owatonna, Minnesota, in the 1930s, and the farm indenture he suffered thereafter. He was an enrolled member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a decorated Army veteran of the Korean War. Razor was completing this novel when he died in 2022 at age 93. His relatives completed and published this historical fiction.

Written in a somewhat journalistic style, Wiijiwaaganag still holds much emotional narrative value. While marketed as a Young Adult title, focusing on the teenage characters, it might be more appropriate to excerpt in high school and college history classes, given its oral history value.

The actual story can well be sampled by the spoiler-free ending paragraphs:
“ It was Saturday; students arrived at the school from villages by wagon and carriage, and Mike Murphy’s grandson arrived from St. Paul.
“Too bad, Jack, about your father,” Mike said. “I hope you like it here. You’ll live with me but go to school with the Indians.” He pointed to a line of students. “For now, get in line there and register for school, then follow them to get your uniform.”
Jack appeared sullen as he muttered, “They’re savages, and those two are naked. The one looks like a half breed. Why do I have to go to school with Injuns?”
Mike flashed a knowing smile. “You’ll get along just fine.”
Jack stood in line behind Esiban and Nagamokwe’s younger sister, and he felt insulted as Esiban looked at him while speaking Anishinaabe. He glared at Esiban, snapping, “Are you talking about me?”
“I ask if you will go to school with us,” Esiban said.
“Oh,” Jack said. “Who’s the half breed?”
“Roger Bemibatood Poznanski is all white, and he is Niizh Eshkanag’s
brother.”
“Who’s Niizh Eshkanag?” Jack asked.
“The one ahead of him,”
“How can they be brothers?” Jack asked, puzzled.
“Long story, it would take all winter to tell.”

Our main characters are the Anishinaabe-born Niizh Eshkanag and a white boy of the same age, Roger Poznanski. They befriend each other at a boarding school where Roger is only attending because his uncle is the headmaster.

Roger is suspicious of his Native classmates at first, but is quick to help when any of them get into trouble. This earns him their respect and friendship, but also infuriates his aunt, who doesn’t want him hanging out with the Native kids.

When summer break comes, Roger wants to visit Niizh’s village. After fighting with his family about it, he decides to head out on his own – basically, he runs away. He only intends to stay for a short visit, then make his way to Milwaukee, where he has other family.

But when his family offers a monetary reward for Roger’s return, the boys find themselves spending much of their summer in the woods, hiding out from white trappers and agents who are trying to find them. They get into several scrapes, some resulting in injury. Most of their troubles come from the white agents, but even some other Anishinaabe teens from Niizh’s village decide to go after that reward.

There is a lot of action in this book, and of course an exchange of ideas between the two cultures represented. While we do see some of the life of the boarding school, the story moves past that at around 35% of the way in. If you read classics, and don’t mind the writing style being a little dry, it’s an interesting look at a different time in our (American) history.

Real Rating: 3.75* of five, rounded up

There is a lot to be said for reliving one's past...only better. The late Peter Razor (<I>While the Locust Slept</i>, 2002) was a former inmate of the successor institution to the Residential Schools. He had skin in this game and he was not going to sit quiet while the world kept not knowing what really happened to boys like him.

Having written a very powerful memoir (it's Kindleable for under $10!) he turned, as many elders will, to making his past a better place than it actually was. Only difference is, he wrote fiction instead of telling tales. He's aimed the resulting fantasy retelling of the past at young adults, wisely, and was in the process of writing it when he died at 90. His family have completed and edited the book, and retained his use of his native tongue and included for the white people an Ojibwemowin-English glossary at the end of the book. As there is no real issue with understanding most of what is said in either language, I'd say it's a feature more useful for completists who would like to gain a sense of the Ojibwemowin language's bones.

That said, I know many readers find it very difficult to immerse themselves in the story if a not-English language is present. Understand that is where you're headed, then, and decide to come on the trip or not. It is a trip...the two boys, Niizh and Roger, go on a quest to find a younger student who ran away from the school after a beating delivered by a staff member.

The hijinks that ensue aren't belief-stretching, what with white people having collywobbles that this Indian is in company with a white child! shock<I>horror</i>! and so on and so forth. It's a YA story, aimed that way, so it's no surprise to anyone that the results are all good, the mean people who beat the one child are sad and redeemed of their cruel, cruel ways, that kind of thing.

I did not read this book for its story. I read it for its heart. A man whose early life was truly, tragically scarring wrote a lovely revamp of his experience of the world, extending it to the future with a smile and a tear. "It can be better, it should be <I>this</i> way, not how it was...not ever again," says this story in its very existence. And that being a message I agree with completely, and support entirely, I wanted to read the story from someone whose standing to tell it is impeccable.

What Author Razor did not have was a writer's experience. It's not a knock against him. He had no reason to develop such a talent through practice and skill-learning. And exactly how would he have done that? So it's not a question of "come back when you're more practiced at your craft," it's a fact of life: The story, as told, has little suspense and not a lot of finesse.

Those are not reasons to pick it up. Learning what a Native American of the Anishinaabe people thought of his childhood, and what by extension others should learn from those shared feelings, those are reasons to pick up the book. Hearing, in your mind's ear, the cadences of the not-English language, and learning its broad outlines. Understanding the pain and the injustice inflicted on an official Government policy of "kill the Indian, save the man," and reckoning with the diseased thinking that could come up with such flimsy lies to cover the real purpose of assimilation. These are the reasons to pick up the book, and to gift it to early teenagers whose world-views are even now hardening. We can not afford to perpetuate the divisions that capitalism instils to ensure its profits. The world is in a genuine, verging on existential, crisis and we need each and every mind, eye, and hand operating at peak capacity to avoid horrific disaster.

Thank you to NetGalley/Makwa Enewed/Michigan State University Press for a copy of Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers in exchange for an honest review.

The author of this book, Peter Razor, also known as Gashkibaajiganinini Aazhegiiwe-Ogichidaa, passed away in May, 2022. He was 93. His family completed Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers for him. The novel’s forward also mentions this book is how Razor imagined the world “might have been.”

While Razor was born in the 1930s and did not attend an American Indian boarding school, he grew up in a Minessota orphanage filled with its own cruelty. Razor published a memoir, While the Locust Slept: A Memoir, in 2002. I will soon be reading it. In the meantime, I highly recommend listening to Razor speak here.

The author’s life story and the history presented in Wiijiwaaganag are vital elements of American history. Too often is American history taught to mean “United States” history, and even then, history as a particular facet wants us to know it.

Wiijiwaaganag is different from any book I’ve read in that it is genuinely bilingual. Roughly one-quarter to one-third of the book is written in Ojibwemowin dialogue. While there is an Ojibwemowin-English dictionary in the back of the book, it’s not strictly necessary as Razor provides enough context clues to understand what’s happening. Fun fact: “Wiijiwaaganag” basically means “platonic soul mate.”

While I’m not 💯 percent sure about this next part, I have an inkling the story follows Native American Indian story conventions. The narration is in a distant third person, and the two main characters mostly tell us how they feel through verbal thoughts rather than sensory experiences.

That’s not to say Niizh Eshkanag, Roger and company aren’t well-drawn — they are.

The plot thickens …
Well, it doesn’t, really. For all the incredible backdrop, excellent character work and creatively structured pieces, the actual plot is pretty paint-by-numbers. For that reason, this already-short book could have stood to be even shorter.

I also would have loved to see more from Niizh Eshkanag’s POV than we ended up getting. The novel repeatedly puts the Anishinaabe people in the position of proving their own humanity to the White Man. Whiteness feels more centered here than I’m used to reading. Whether that’s good, neutral or bad is above my paygrade.

Should you read it?
Absolutely, though how much you enjoy it will depend on your age.

Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers is being marketed as YA and general historical fiction; however, this would make a great addition to 8th-grade classrooms, as that’s a year many students take US history. Niizh Eshkanag and Roger are about 13 and 14 throughout the book, and I see their adventures appealing to that age group. That’s not to say older readers wouldn’t get anything out of this book, but that younger readers will likely enjoy it more.

Though the plot wasn’t entirely gripping, Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers was fascinating for its format alone. Further, I’m glad to see more native stories in the world.

Wiijiwaaganag: More Than Brothers is out on January 1, 2023. Pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library. 📚🏫

Content warning: Violence (including against children), human and animal death, racism.

(3.5 stars)

Thank you to Net Galley for providing an early copy of Wiijiwaaganag by Peter Razor

Peter Razor has attempted to offer a close-up look at the stresses placed on Native American children (in this case The Anishinaabe tribe) when forced by the government to leave their homes and attend boarding schools whose mission was to erase their heritage and become good American citizens. The book also follows the developing friendship of one such Native American boy and the nephew of the boarding school director. They will find common ground as they begin to support each other at the school and later as they survive the wilderness together.

Other books, especially non-fiction, have recently been written about the horrible treatment of Native American children in these types of settings. Very recently the Canadian government has also had to face the complicity of cruel acts against the very children they were designed to educate and protect.

Wiijiwaaganag features quite a bit of the text in the Native American language, and some readers may find this distracting and choose to skip. In some places an entire paragraph may be written this way. The author provides a very detailed glossary at the end of the book for anyone wishing to delve more deeply into the language.

The book lacks a clear chronology of events and at times the time frame is unclear. Nevertheless, the protagonists of Wiijiwaaganag experience growth and new understanding of each other's worlds.

Two boys, one a Native American and the other white, run away from boarding school in order to rescue another student. Together, the two come face-to-face with the issues and treatment of Native Americans during the time when they were forced to attend boarding school to become "civilized".
The description of the book was eye catching, along with the earth-toned colors of the cover. I fell into the story and found myself flowing through the Native language in the book like it was a river. While I was not certain of how to initially pronounce any of their language, just looking at the words was like looking at art. They seemed very round, earthy, and comforting. Because of this I hope there will be an audiobook available so that readers may hear the language.
As an adult, I have come to appreciate minute features, such as the shape of a word. However, middle schoolers have yet to develop that skill. Setting my personal enjoyment, I will not buy this book for my library. The language would be a big turn-off for middle school readers. This story will most definitely succeed with an older reading group.

The blending of English and Anishinaabemowin challenges non-native readers to enter another culture and provides native people with a story that affirms their history and culture.

I grew up on land stolen from the Potawatomi. My public school quite notably omitted anything about the true history of the area as well as anything about the horrors inflicted upon Native Americans throughout history by whites (and yes, there was conflict between tribes as well). I was glad to be able to read an advance copy of this book because I hoped it would add to my ongoing education on Native American culture and history.

This book contains many passages written in Ojibwemowin. When a Native American character speaks, what they say is given in their language and then also in English. I respect that very much, because historically, these languages were banned and people were forced to learn and speak English. However, it was difficult to read an entire book written in this manner, and no pronunciation guide was given so I had no idea how to say the words. A glossary was included at the back of the book, which I hadn't known was there until I got to the end, but that didn't give a pronunciation key either.

The story itself felt a bit juvenile. Orphaned white kid helps his NA nemesis save a Native American boy and they become best friends; white kid runs away to live with his new NA best friend and eventually becomes accepted and respected by the tribe. Kid returns to his cold hearted relatives and they suddenly become loving and treat the Native American schoolchildren better. Oh boy. It was hard to get through this and I found myself skimming over paragraphs from time to time. The happy ending was a bit too pat for me. This book was OK, worth a try, but overall it lacked passion and suspense and felt wooden.

Wiijiwaaganag is an important story of a period in which Native American children were forced into government schools. While the characters are realistic and the plot interesting, the author’s use of language and style make this story read slowly and feel laborious.

The basic storyline tells of two boys, one native and one white, who meet at an Indian school. They grow to understand and trust one another, overcoming stereotype to truly know each other. Their bravery, loyalty, intelligence, and compassion make them outstanding protagonists, and the historical setting is so important for young adults to read about and understand.

The author uses indigenous Ojibwemowin language throughout the story, a characteristic that adds credibility and atmosphere. The language, however, is found so frequently, often in every paragraph, it interrupts the flow of the story and prevents readers from maintaining a good pace and understanding. As a teacher, I can imagine my students skimming the text or even quitting in frustration. While some of the indigenous language supports the story, the quantity and frequency is off putting, distracting, and confusing.

Similarly, the style of this text makes it read more like a summary than a work of literature. Many of the details are told directly, rather than described so that readers can feel them and learn them on their own. This combines with the indigenous language to create a text that at times feels like a textbook, a lecture, or a factual report. The information and historical research are so rich, but many readers will not persevere through the text to benefit from the story.

Overall, I appreciate the topic, historical era, and setting of this work, but I think many readers will struggle with the style and language. I can imagine using excerpts from this in a history class, so that I could expose students to the content selectively and prevent their frustration with the language.

Wiijiwaaganag focuses on two boys; the first is Niizh Eshkanag, an Anishinaabe boy forced to go to a residential school. This school will attempt to strip him of his name, language and culture. Roger is the nephew of the school principal and is going to be attending the same school. The boys quickly learn that they have many of the same values; they stand up for their classmates and have strong morals. When summer comes, Roger decides to run away to experience Niizh Eshkanag's life, much to the dismay of many White Americans in the area. The boys set off on an adventure. We see many of the problems they run into aren't because of the Anishinaabe, but the Caucasian community, who feel they need to right a wrong.

The duality of using ojibemowin and english for dialogue was a little distracting at first. But when thinking of the book's central themes, I believe it is essential to include the ojibwemowin as a matter of principle to counteract the attempts at removing the language. There was also a translational key in the back of the book, a character list, and some teacher's tools, which were all very helpful. I wish I had seen them earlier in my reading!

The writing isn't anything special. Some scenes could have been very suspenseful and exciting but fell flat. The plot, characters and setting made up for it. They were all fleshed out and felt very vivid and real. There is a lot of fantastic nature imagery during Niizh Eshkanag and Roger's adventures.

Often, in stories involving residential schools, it's all the negative experiences of the indigenous children. It's important to tell these tales as residential schools were horrendous and were swept under the rug for too long. Still, some people want to read happy books, so they aren't likely to read these types of books and learn about those experiences. Seeing a white child's positive experience with the Anishinabe group was a lovely way to shine a positive light on the indigenous culture while acknowledging and including the horrors of residential schools. Many of the problems Roger ran into were due to the Caucasian people in the community thinking that they knew what was right.

I hope people take the time to read this book. It may not be the most straightforward book to read, but it is well worth it.

I want to thank Netgalley and Michigan State University Press for an e-ARC of Wiijiwaaganag: More than Brothers in exchange for an honest review!

I gave this book three stars mainly because of the respect that I have for the story, which desperately needs to be told again and again.

As far as the pacing and the prose, it fell flat. It was just hard to get through. The Native language was interesting, and the Native names, as well - for awhile. but it was hard to keep track of the characters. White people need to hear this story, but there's a definite line between the authenticity of the language and the clarity of the story.

This book took a long time for me to read because the pacing was slow and the adventure didn’t hold any tension or excitement.

The dual language was interesting at the start but made the book too long and disrupted the flow of the story.

The dialogue lacked any nuance and was too direct for the story, especially considering this was about 14 year old boys. The conversations were unrealistic and felt choppy.

I’m not sure if the distant third person POV was helpful or really distracting to the story.

As someone who has been learning more about First Nations American history, I was really intrigued to read this one. I loved the inclusion of native language as well as the inclusion of culture. This novel did highlight the racism and abuse experienced by First Nations people during the implementation of U.S. government boarding schools.

I was initially taken in by the dual-language aspect of this book, but the story is utterly flaccid, and the dialogue and character actions is strained and monotone. Everything is written as if it's being reported, with the dialogue being formalized from what real people would say. It's wooden, full of the passive voice, and unbelievable not because of the plot but because of the way everyone acts and speaks. It just plods and flops along; reaching the end was a relief.