Soldier Sister, Fly Home

by: Nancy Bo Flood

I really enjoyed this book about a part Navajo/part white teen, Tess, who has to spend the summer on her own when her sister, Gina, not only enrolls in the Army but then is deployed to Iraq. Tess learns who she is, how to befriend her sister’s dreaded, half-wild horse, Blue, and mostly how to forgive and let things go.

I loved not only the diversity of this book but also the close family relationships portrayed that are so often missing in teen fiction.  I loved her poetry and her voice. I also loved the included pronunciation guide to the Navajo language included in the text. The descriptions in this book are beautiful.

Also, there is information about Lori Piestewa who, a real-life soldier, was killed in Iraq (the first native woman killed in a foreign war) and was a member of the Hopi tribe.