LITTLE MOONS

A moving exploration of how grief affects people, centering on an Ojibwe family.

When 15-year-old Chelsea doesn’t come home after school one day, her family deals with trying to find closure. A year passes, and the family members are coping with their trauma in different ways. Reanna hopes to feel closer to her sister through traditional dancing and wearing Chelsea’s regalia. Their mother does everything to distance herself from her life on the reserve, however. She moves to the city, leaving Reanna and little brother Theo with their father, a caring man with whom they have a strong relationship. The story handles the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People with dignity and authenticity. The limited text on some pages draws focus to the art and its powerful imagery. Many story elements add to the authenticity and nuance, from the portrayal of the various ways Indigenous people style their hair to the inclusion of Ojibwe mourning traditions and the poignant notifications on Reanna’s phone, showing her photos that revive memories from a time before her sister vanished and highlight how fractured her family has become. The ways that Chelsea’s family tries to find closure and deal with her absence vary, realistically showcasing the forms grief can take and the struggle of longing for answers one may never get.

A powerful and sensitively told story.