Rez Dogs

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

From the U.S.’s foremost indigenous children’s author comes a middle grade verse novel set during the COVID-19 pandemic, about a Wabanaki girl’s quarantine on her grandparents’ reservation and the local dog that becomes her best friend

Malian loves spending time with her grandparents at their home on a Wabanaki reservation. She’s there for a visit when, suddenly, all travel shuts down. There’s a new virus making people sick, and Malian will have to stay with her grandparents for the duration.

Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family and community safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. She doesn’t go outside to play with friends, she helps her grandparents use video chat, and she listens to and learns from their stories. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too.

Told in verse inspired by oral storytelling, this novel about the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the ways Malian’s community has cared for one another through plagues of the past, and how they keep caring for one another today.

About the Author

Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning Abenaki poet, novelist, storyteller, and scholar of indigenous culture. His work has appeared in hundreds of publications from Akwesasne Notes and American Poetry Review to National Geographic and Parabola. He has written more than 160 books for adults and children, including Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, Talking Leaves, and Two Roads.

Author Residence: Greenfield Center, NY