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When Nathan goes to visit his grandma, Nali, at her mobile summer home on the Navajo reservation, he knows he’s in for a pretty uneventful summer. Still, he loves spending time with Nali, and with his uncle Jet—though it’s clear when Jet arrives that he brings his problems with him. One night, while lost in the nearby desert, Nathan finds something extraordinary. A Holy Being from the Navajo Creation Story—a Water Monster—in need of help. Now Nathan must summon all his courage to save his new friend. With the help of other Navajo Holy Beings, Nathan is determined to save the Water Monster, and to help Uncle Jet heal from his own pain.
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I loved this so much the mythology was so interesting and the different characters were fascinating. The mental illness rep (PTSD and depression) was a bit brutal but very good from my perspective (I have both but from different causes than the characters). I would recommend caregivers find and read those sections first and maybe have a talk with a 10 and up child about them before having them read it, but other than that I think this is very accessible and would be very interesting to MG aged kids. There are also themes of divorce (parents of the protagonist), grief and death that are accessible and might be a good way to initiate or continue discussions of those things with kids. All of it is handled in a very hopeful way.