I Can Make This Promise

Starred review from July 29, 2019
Debut author Day (who is Upper Skagit) drew from her own experience as the daughter of a Native American adoptee to create the character of Edie Green, a 12-year-old budding artist who lives in Seattle with her parents. Edie has always known that her Native American mother was adopted and raised by a white family; while digging around in the family’s attic, Edie stumbles upon a box of photos and letters written by Edith Graham, a Suquamish and Duwamish aspiring actor from the 1970s. When her friends notice the striking similarity between Edie and Edith and her parents don’t answer Edie’s broad questions about her, Edie becomes convinced that the stranger is her namesake. Beyond the mystery, important themes
resonate throughout, including
cultural identity and what makes a friendship worth keeping. Day’s affecting novel also considers historical truths about how Native Americans have been treated throughout U.S. history, particularly underlining family separations. Though Edie’s first-person voice occasionally sounds a bit young for a seventh grader, her urgent desire to know her family’s past propels this story forward. In illuminating notes that bookend the novel, Day further discusses the personal and historical roots of Edie’s moving tale. Ages 8–12. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary & Media.

August 15, 2019
A Suquamish/Duwamish girl uncovers her tragic family history in this contemporary tale of adoption. Edie's idyllic life in a Seattle neighborhood is upended when she realizes her parents have been telling lies. Biracial 12-year-old Edie has always known her mother was Native American but adopted into a white family. Due to this, her mother has claimed to be ignorant about her birth family and tribe. (Edie's father is white.) While the ambiguities of Edie's family history make her uncomfortable, she accepts the story until the day she searches the attic while working on a film project with her two best friends. They discover a box there with photos of a woman who looks exactly like Edie. Opening letters in the box, the friends realize the woman shares Edie's name. Even as preteen tensions begin to pull her friend group apart, young Edie struggles as she seeks to discover the truth about her past without asking her parents directly. Preteen anxiety gives way to daunting maturity as she learns about the misrepresentation of Native Americans in film, the activism of the American Indian Movement, and the reason her parents decided to keep her family connections a secret for so long. The novel is enlightening and a must-read for anyone interested in issues surrounding identity and adoption. Debut author Day (Upper Skagit) handles family separation in Native America with insight and grace. (Fiction. 8-12)

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Narrator Kyla Garcia gives compelling voices to biracial 12-year-old Edie and her family in this heartbreaking contemporary story based on the author's own family history. Edie has always known that her Native American mother was taken from her family and adopted into a white family. But she knows nothing more about her family history until she discovers a secret box of letters in the attic. The letters reveal the hopes and dreams of another Edith, a Suquamish/Duwamish woman in the 1970s who Edie suspects is her namesake. Garcia deftly portrays Edie's friends and the adults in her life. She is strongest when portraying Edie herself. Edie's voice resonates with outraged shock when she discovers the painful truth about her mother's birth family. S.C. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

October 18, 2019

Gr 3-7-In this debut novel, a young girl discovers her grandmother's Hollywood aspirations and her mother's Suquamish and Duwamish ancestry. Edie knows that her white Dad is American and that her Native American mom was adopted into a white family, but that's almost all she knows of her heritage. Then, a casual excursion to the attic unearths pictures of Edith, a stranger who resembles Edie, and hard truths her family has kept hidden for years start to emerge. Day (tribally enrolled, Upper Skagit) captures the angst, embarrassment, and uncertainty of many Indigenous people whose parents or grandparents were separated from their communities by adoption or residential school placement. Day details Indigenous culture with skill and nuance and crafts complex relationships between multidimensional characters. The depiction of the painful history of Native peoples who were separated from their families and taken from their ancestral homeland is straightforward and honest. The use of text messages between Edie and her close friends moves the story along and gives the book an intimate feel. VERDICT Readers will be drawn into Edie's emotions as she copes with overprotective parents and honesty in relationships. Keep an eye out for Day, as her writing is powerful. Highly recommended.-Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State University, Montgomery

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2019
Grades 4-7 It's summertime in Seattle for 12-year-old Edie, and between animating a short film with her best friends and adjusting to new braces, she is keeping busy. Nothing could have prepared her for a discovery in her parents' attic: a box full of photographs and letters belonging to a woman named Edith Graham, someone whose likeness is uncannily similar to Edie's. Edie always knew her mother was both Native American and adopted, but who was Edith Graham? As we follow Edie in unraveling this mystery, Day (herself having ties to the Upper Skagit tribe) offers readers a rich story that is both powerfully genuine in its conflicts and delightfully imaginative in its resolutions. The narrative explores issues relevant to tween readers, such as maneuvering through a friendship that is changing, coping with painful braces, and confronting family secrets. If that weren't enough, this debut also offers compelling historical knowledge about the Pacific Northwest Native American tribes, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, and what it means to find one's heritage.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)