by Elana K. Arnold
Published by HarperCollins, 2020
368 pages
ISBN: 9780062742353
Age 14 and older
Bisou was a little girl when her father killed her mother. Now 16, she's lived with her maternal grandmother, Mémé, ever since. When Bisou finally gets her period, she makes the discovery in an intimate moment with her boyfriend. Embarrassed, she runs off into the woods. In the dark, she senses something chasing her and discovers it’s a wolf, which Bisou kills in self-defense. The next morning, the naked body of one of her male classmates is found. It turns out Mémé has a secret: With her monthly blood came a calling and heightened ability to hunt men whose violence transforms them into wolves. Now Bisou bears the gift and the burden of being a hunter. Bisou, who is white, has always known that some boys and men consider it their right to claim girls and women—body and being--as their own; she remembers her mother's bruises, and finding her bloodied body. Still, she’d never considered speaking out or taking action. Her classmate Keisha does speak out, challenging the behavior of one boy in particular whose harassment of Maggie, another classmate, is frightening. Folkloric elements amplify the harshest truths of misogyny, as well as female fear and rage, in this gripping tale. Bisou’s and Mémé’s hunting, while unsettling, is in response to violent, deadly intentions. The power of friendship, solidarity, and truth-telling among girls and women, and supportive boys and men, also resonates across this tense, arresting work. ©2020 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
No comments:
Post a Comment