The Firekeeper legacy of brave, strong women continues with Perry Firekeeper-Birch. This new book from Angeline Bouley takes readers on a wild ride that could play out in any community in America, as we all inhabit Native land. At the forefront of this fast-paced novel is the deep need to get ancestral relics and remains out of the display cases and collections of public museums and private collections alike, and return them to the community where they belong, among people who will properly honor and respect them. Bouley gives readers a narrative full of twists and turns that is also intended to inform her audience about the many injustices facing indigenous communities.

Angeline Boulley’s debut book was an amazing story and I knew I would want to read her next books asap. Though I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Firekeepers Daughter I still enjoyed the story overall.

While this seems a bit more juvenile than ABs last book I think most readers will still enjoy the story. AB pours her heart into her writing and that really shows throughout. You can tell that she loves her culture and to see an own voice author capture their culture so clearly on the page makes this an easily immersive tale that everyone will connect to regardless of their own culture.

This book will pull on all your emotions. You will rage at the injustices done to the characters, you will cry with them, and you will love them fiercely.

I can not wait to see what else AB puts out in the future.

I love how Boulley uses her books to explore previous and current issues plaguing the Indigenous community and "Warrior Girl Unearthed" is no exception. The novel delves into themes of cultural identity, family, and resilience with a touch of a mystery and a little romance.

I found myself constantly switching between this and Google to find out more about NAGPRA and any current context. I also really enjoyed the quotes that were weaved throughout the story - they really drove home the importance of preserving cultural identity.

Boulley did an excellent job of creating a compelling and thought-provoking story that will stay with me for a long time. Check this one out if you love history and restoring power back to ethnically diverse communities.

Thank you, netgalley, macmillan/henry holt and co, for the ARC!

Loved this book so much!!!!

Pauline has always been told that she is "the smart twin," but is also plagued by perfectionism and anxiety.
Perry knows that she's not considered the superstar of her family, and she doesn't care. She loves her sister and watches over her. After a fender bender wrecks her planned "summer of slack," she's suddenly transformed into a rebel with a cause.

As part of a summer internship program run by her tribe, Perry is assigned to be a tribal museum assistant. Perry yawns at the idea of dusty display cases, until she learns that artifacts and even remains of her tribe members are being displayed at the local college, even stored in cardboard boxes.

Perry is horrified and outraged. When she is foiled in her attempts to apply for the repatriation of the remains and objects throught legal channels, decides that she will mastermind a heist.

Perry is just as fierce and inspirational a main character as Daunis from TFD. Plus, you'll get to revisit so many of your favorite characters.

As in The Firekeeper's Daughter, Boulley writes incredibly movingly about Ojibwe culture while at the same time never letting the reader forget all the horribly indignities and abuse her people have suffered and persevered through. I can't wait for her next book!

Title: Warrior Girl Unearthed
Author: Angeline Boulley
Genre: YA, mystery
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep.

Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program, Team Misfit Toys, and even her twin sister Pauline. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all.

But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes. Perry has to return Warrior Girl to her tribe. Determined to help, she learns all she can about NAGPRA, the federal law that allows tribes to request the return of ancestral remains and sacred items. The university has been using legal loopholes to hold onto Warrior Girl and twelve other Anishinaabe ancestors’ remains, and Perry and the Misfits won’t let it go on any longer.

Using all of their skills and resources, the Misfits realize a heist is the only way to bring back the stolen artifacts and remains for good. But there is more to this repatriation than meets the eye as more women disappear and Pauline’s perfectionism takes a turn for the worse. As secrets and mysteries unfurl, Perry and the Misfits must fight to find a way to make things right – for the ancestors and for their community.

I enjoyed learning so much about the Anishinaabe tribe and culture. I found those details fascinating. Perry was a great character! She truly learned from her mistakes and grew from that knowledge, and she fully embraced her culture and heritage and determined to honor it in every way she could. I also liked the connections to Firekeeper’s Daughter.

Angeline Boulley is from Michigan. Warrior Girl Unearthed is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Macmillan Children’s/Henry Holt and Co. in exchange for an honest review.)

Ignorance is bliss, but ignorance is also, oftentimes, a privilege. And I'm sad to say, I've been ignorant of a lot when it comes to things like NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) and the fight that Indigenous peoples have had, and are currently having, with museums and collectors to recover tribal artifacts and the bones of their dead.

Perry is your run-of-the-mill teen - a little too sure of herself, kind of naiive, and a bit impulsive with a temper to boot. When she gets stuck with a summer internship at the historical museum, she tries to find a way out of it - history is way less up her alley than fishing - that is until she see the Warrior Girl. Trapped inside a dusty museum, claimed by a white anthropologist, the remains of an Indigenous ancestor sit within a box; while many others are disassembled and organized by bone pieces, rather than their own individual bodies; all barred from their descendants by bureaucracy.

As I was learning about these laws and these injustices with Perry, I felt her disbelief, her anger, and her reactions felt justified, if not slightly irresponsible. She's determined to fight for her ancestors and the ancestors of Sugar Island and beyond - but do two wrongs make a right? A big part of this story is wondering if the ends justify the means, and we walk both sides of that line throughout the story.

In addition to learning about NAGPRA and the red tape that surrounds it, the story delves deep into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) - both the organization and the fact that women and girls go missing regularly. It was heartbreaking and suspenseful as characters disappeared from the pages, and it reflected the often neglegent attitude of law enforcement, as well as the unfair and unbalanced justice system surrounding crime (i.e., rape, murder, and kidnapping) on tribal land.

This book does focus on heavier themes, but it doesn't make the book as a whole feel heavy. We still see a lot of Perry and her friends just being teenagers. There's love and jealousy and pure fun and joy. At the end of the day, I never thought I'd read an educational mystery thriller that made me both cry and laugh, but here we are. An absolutely heartbreaking and fantastic book, this is not one to be missed.

TW: injury detail, racism, kidnapping, death, murder, bullying; mentions grooming, rape, pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, genocide, residential schools, colonialism, chronic illness (diabetes), drug use, pregnancy, war

Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
World Building: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Pacing: 5/5
Overall: 5/5

eARC and finished copy gifted via NetGalley and Colored Pages Tours by Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

I'm obsessed. She is an auto-buy author for me now and forever!!

Warrior Girl delivered on everything I loved about Firekeeper's Daughter and then some! Jumping back into the Sugar Island community and the Firekeeper family specifically was a gift. It felt familiar and homey after falling in love with the first book and all the supporting characters of Daunis' story. I loved Perry's story even more - I loved following along with her as she learns the ins and outs of NAGPRA and the repatriation of her tribe's stolen cultural artifacts. IMO, this was a very approachable presentation of an issue that has been on the peripheries of the news cycle but deserves significantly more attention - this story puts familiar faces and names on those fighting for justice against enormous odds.

Despite addressing such serious topics as cultural and historical theft, the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW), and police violence against Black people, this story remains firmly young adult - Perry is at the age of internships, first romances, college applications (or not!), and brave (but perhaps foolhardy) acts of vigilante justice. I LOVED ALL OF THIS. I was completely enveloped in Perry's reasoning - I supported her every step of the way even though I knew in my grown-up mind that the risks were too high. I loved her flirtations with new-kid-on-the-block and her and her twin's internship struggles. It all felt very natural to me. And, to top of the high-stakes, heart-racing plot, Perry and her family become mired in a murder mystery AND a separate mystery regarding the disappearance of local anishinaabekwe. This may sound like a lot of things to cover in one book, but Boulley weaves them together beautifully.

I did however, find that this book and her first book both fell into the trap of trying to address all problems, everywhere, all at once and it resulted, in both books, in a very rushed ending. In this book, as the story climaxes, the next chapter is the epilogue and all is settled. This was much too jarring for me. I would have liked a much longer epilogue explaining the results of the MANY things that happened in that last chapter. Also, I didn't like the way Daunis' story ended THERE I SAID IT OK SUE ME!!! I was holding out hope for the other ending. But alas, I digress.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced read of Angeline Boulley's newest YA thriller, Warrior Girl Unearthed.
I loved it.
Boulley has done it again with a strong female teenage protagonist that kicks ass, and doesn't put up with anyone's bullshit. Her name is Perry Firekeeper-Birch.
I absolutely loved following Perry, niece to Daunis Firekeeper from Boulley's amazing work,The Firekeeper's Daughter.
Perry works at a local museum, where she learns more about preserving cultural and ancestral remains. More and more Native girls go missing, and after learning about "Warrior Girl", an ancestor whose bones are being stored away from her tribe, Perry and her friends plan a heist to right the wrongs done to the Native people and their sacred land.
This book sheds so much light on the Native culture, and the way the federal government, law enforcement and people have continued with the prejudices and atrocities many Native Americans have faced at the hands of their white neighbors.
As angry as the realities of the book made me, it was so informative and such a thrilling storyline. I am so grateful to have been able to read Warrior Girl Unearthed

As an adult, I enjoyed this book! I found the information about artifact repatriation fascinating and I loved how well Perry's character was developed throughout the novel. I did find the pacing to be a bit uneven, but I had no issue sticking with it, especially given how much I loved Firekeeper's Daughter. All that said, I teach an independent reading class at a high school and I do not think most teen readers would stick with this one. The first half was pretty slow and I think many young readers who were not super interested in the cultural aspects from the start would not stick it out to get to the action in the second half. So, I'd give this an easy 5 stars for adult readers, but more like 3.5 for likely teen readers.

This is in the same world as Firekeeper's Daughter, but with a focus on the twins, Perry and Pauline, during their summer internships. Early in the book Perry gets an internship at the museum that she isn't too excited about. But when she discovers that many sacred tribal artifacts are being kept in other museums and personal collections, Perry's passion for getting them back to her people emerges.

Delving into history, culture, and laws, Boulley creates a coming of age heist story that is just as memorable as Firekeeper's daughter. I fell in love with the characters, and then the social justice and history aspects were weaved in throughout the story.

I don’t even know where to start when it comes to this amazing book. I loved Angeline’s debut, Firekeeper’s Daughter, and I honestly think I loved this one even more. This is such a timely novel about honoring indigenous ancestral rights and ensuring sacred items are brought home, but it is also a story about community, family, and honoring those that have been taken and those that have been lost.

I adore Perry Firekeeper-Birch. Her spunky attitude, her bravery, and her fierce dedication to her community and her ancestors resonated so deeply with me. The passion in Boulley’s writing makes you share every emotion Perry experiences - the anger, the joy, the fear. The character development was lacking a little, but I still loved every single one of them - especially Shense and Cooper.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book and I highly recommend everyone read it!

In this sequel to Firekeeper's Daughter, Perry finds herself needing to work the summer she is 16 in order to pay off the repair bills on the car she wrecked. She gets assigned to the weird guy, Cooper Turtle, through the local internship program. When she starts to see value in his work of recovering lost tribal artifacts, to include skeletons, Perry is reassigned. Through a series of being reassigned, she comes up with a plan to help return the items. Along the way, girls are going missing and something is up with her friends. Perry must juggle everything and try to keep her head above water.
Opinion
Firekeeper's Daughter was my favorite book of 2021. When I saw another book out by the same author, I knew I had to read it without reading what it was about. When I realized it was some of the same characters from FD, I was ecstatic.
This book is a wonderful mystery that knows how to pull on your heartstrings. Along the way, I found my eyes opening to a different viewpoint and gaining a better understanding of what has been done to Native Americans and their heritage.
I really enjoyed that Perry was a bit of a rule breaker, though she did cause me worry. I think the thing that drew me most to her was her heart and the fact that it was her heart that drove her to do everything she did.
The antagonists were really unlikable. There wasn't any redeeming qualities and that made the story better because it gave me permission to hate them.
I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is a long read but so worth the time invested in it.
Many thanks to Net Galley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Warrior Girl Unearthed follows Perry Firekeeper-Birch as she navigates identity, community, and missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) in her community. It's safe to say that initially, Perry is unhappy with having to intern with the tribal center for the summer. However, through the work she does she learns how difficult it is still for tribes to recover artifacts and ancestors. Soon she finds herself planning a heist to take back the remains of 40+ ancestors that a local has "collected".

Angeline Boulley's writing in both Firekeepers Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed is beautiful and complex. She tackles really intense issues in a way that feels very approachable for teens (since this is YA). The found family in this was also beautiful - the "Misfit Toys" group were so supportive of each other and never questioned Perry's motivation nor plan.

Though I appreciated all the set up that happens in the beginning 75% of the book and the realizations that Perry comes to, I found the last 25% of the book to be incredibly fast paced and just a little abrupt. I think it could have used another 50 pages or so to just slow down a bit.

Other than that I absolutely loved this book, loved the writing and will continue to read whatever Angeline Boulley writes next!

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co publishing for the eARC in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own.

What a wonderful sequel! I loved Firekeepers Daughter, but I enjoyed Warrior Girl Unearthed even more. I loved having a background in the area, the people, and the culture from Firekeepers Daughter (so I would suggest reading it first).
Finding out what happens to the twins - specifically Perry - was such a delight. How had the lives they lived changed since we last met them? It was wonderful to see twins that were not exact copies of each other or were so different they did not even speak to each other. Seeing how their futures were planned - and how those plans changed - was an interesting aspect that I think many teenagers will relate to. The twists with what was happening seemed natural and not forced like in some novels. And I loved that Boulley kept the teens as the focus throughout - even if we thought they may have taken a wrong turn. It was also relatable seeing who some of the antagonists ended up being.
Well written. An interesting look into Indigenous culture. Quality legal information about cultural relics and who should have ownership.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a strong follow up to the Firekeeper's Daughter and a must read for fans of Angeline Boulley.

Set within the same tribe and lands as Firekeeper's Daughter, Warrior Girl Unearthed follows the story of Perry Firekeeper-Birch, one of Daunis's nieces. Perry is stuck working at the tribal center for the summer where she feels constantly reminder of everything she isn't, basically smart and driven like her sister. However, she is surprised to actually enjoy the work she is assigned when she starts to learn about the federal laws that are supposed to help native tribes recover their ancestors and artifacts. She also is surprised to make some unexpected friends, and perhaps even start a new romance. However, it becomes clear that someone within the community can't be trusted as women from the community go missing and plans for recovering ancestors are thwarted. The question is, who is involved?

Warrior Girl Unearthed is another thought-provoking, suspenseful, and fantastic read. I highly recommend for those interested in learning more about indigenous people, fans of Firekeeper's Daughter, or anyone who enjoys a good young adult fiction book about a strong female character and a band of misfits that aren't afraid to stand up to those in power.

Thank you to #netgalley, Henry Holt & Co publishing, and Angeline Boulley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

You do not have to read Firekeeper’s Daughter before read this book. However, it would add to your pleasure. This book takes place ten years later. The main character is Perry Firekeeper Birch an enrolled Ojibwe member. She is looking forward to a summer of fun with lots of fishing. Her twin sister Pauline is more ambitious, yet more anxious. Perrys summer of fun comes to a quick close when she crashes the twin’s jeep and has to pay for the damages. As she works at an internship at Sugar Island Cultural Learning Center, she comes to understand and appreciate the importance and difficulties involved in reclaiming Indigenous cultural artifacts from collections at Mackinac State College, as well as other colleges and museums across the United States, on eBay and worldwide. Perry often acts before she thinks. Watching her character grow and blossom is a pleasure. I have already ordered this for my high school library. As soon as the public library has the audiobook, I’ll be on the waitlist. Hearing Firekeeper’s Daughter narrated by Isabella Starr LaBlanc is a pleasure not to be missed. I can’t wait to hear her narrate Warrior Girl Unearthed. The authentic pronunciation of the language will be divine.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Perry Firekeeper-Birch just wants a summer of fun, but instead finds herself with a summer of work. When she learns of the remains of a “Warrior Girl” being kept at a local university, she starts on a search for truth and justice that brings her even closer to her family and community. I learned so much from this novel, and I even did more research while I was reading, just as Perry does.

I read other reviews that note that change in voice for this novel, mostly that it feels less mature than Boulley’s debut. I think it’s important to note that Daunis was 19 in TFD, and Perry is 16 in WGU. Her voice reflects her age, in my opinion.

This is such an important book, not only because of its simultaneously tenacious and tender main character, but also because of what it can teach us about culture and community. Boulley is such an important voice in our literary landscape, and this story elevates our awareness of MMIW, indigenous artifacts, repatriation, cultural practices, and many other ideas, I also appreciate the indigenous language used throughout the book and the way it continually offers windows for so many readers. I'm even more excited about the mirror a book like this might offer to indigenous readers (nod to Rudy Sims Bishop).

I happened to be at a book festival last spring where Boulley spoke about Firekeeper's Daughter. Before the event, I walked past a group of young people from a nearby reservation who had come to hear her speak. They were telling Ms. Boulley how much her book meant to them. I'm so thankful there's another wonderful story out in the world for all of us, but I'm especially thankful young indigenous readers have yet another book where they might see themselves and their culture.

I did not expect this book to include so many characters from the earlier book, which was an unexpected bonus of this suspenseful, page-turning read. They remained in the background, and selfishly, I wanted to know a little more about the ten years between the settings of these books. However, I appreciated that the original characters from the debut novel maintained so much of who there were in that book. This book is its own story though, and it maintains a faster, more action-packed pace than the earlier book.

I absolutely loved Firekeeper's Daughter in 2021 - one of my favorite books that year - and truly could not wait to read this new novel from the moment it was announced. My expectations were perhaps too high, but Angeline Boulley's sophomore novel isn't quite as good as her debut. It's on the long side and I felt it at times, especially as the central plot (a heist, which was part of what drew me to the book) wasn't introduced for quite a while. There are multiple mysteries and side plots, some of which weave together while others are red herrings or seem discarded/unnecessary. That said, Boulley's passion and pride for her culture shine throughout the book. She lends incredible specificity to her writing, and weaves in so many real-life issues to built out the world as well as multiple mysteries. Even when I felt the plot lagged, I was still interested and invested (and frequently infuriated); I just wasn't on the edge of my seat.

Firekeeper’s Daughter was one of my favorite books of 2021, so I immediately jumped at the chance to read Angeline Boulley’s new YA novel Warrior Girl Unearthed. It did not disappoint!

Set on Sugar Island, the same community as Firekeeper’s Daughter, Warrior Girl Unearthed is about Perry Firekeeper-Birch. She’s a twin—the less ambitious twin—who is committed to her Anishinaabe community and has little urge to look outside of it, unlike Pauline, “the smart twin.” She enters into the summer after her sophomore year with a commitment to fish, relax, and spend time with her beloved dog Elvis Junior.

After a few poor decisions, Perry’s plans change. Her parents decide that she needs more structure, so with the help of Auntie Daunis (from Firekeeper’s Daughter!), they set up an internship. Perry will be working at the Sugar Island Cultural Learning Center with Cooper Turtle, an eccentric whose first task for Perry is polishing the huge number of glass cabinets in the museum.

Perry is eager for a way out. But then, Cooper invites her on a trip to Mackinac State College and a meeting with several professors who are in charge of their museum’s collection of human remains and associated funerary objects, which—despite the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act—have yet to be returned to their tribe. And Perry is hooked.

Soon, she’s undergoing an unofficial course of deep reading and learning with Cooper that makes her fully aware of just how many objects and remains sacred to her people are being held by universities, shown off by non-Anishinaabe private collectors, and sold on eBay. Perry devotes herself to reclaiming her ancestors and their heritage.

I loved so much about this book. As Perry learns about the injustices done to her people, Boulley incorporates passages from a variety of historical and nonfiction texts that offer valuable information (both for Perry and for the reader). Perry at first seems to be a character who will be laid back in her approach to life, but when she takes on this challenge, her passion and commitment are clear.

Perry’s relationship with her family and friends, in particular her sister Pauline, their friend Lucas, and Erik, who just moved to Sugar Island, is richly drawn, and I loved the nuance with which Boulley develops the secondary characters. Perry herself is a fantastic protagonist whose blunt declarations and dedication to protecting she loves combine with her impulsiveness to lead to some interesting situations.

There are some other plot points that are important to highlight. One is focused on MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) as women in Perry’s community begin to disappear. The other is about Perry’s efforts to reclaim artifacts, which turns a bit heist-y. While the former is both important and connected to all that Perry is learning about the way some people approach her people and, particularly, the women in her community, the last third of the book did stretch my credulity.

With that said, I still highly recommend this book. It’s a great successor to Firekeeper’s Daughter, taking on some incredibly important topics and featuring one of my favorite protagonists in recent memory. Warrior Girl Unearthed should be at the top of your TBR!