Book review: The Stone Child: Book 3 of the Misewa Saga
Reviewed by Karl Hele
The Stone Child: Book 3 of the Misewa Saga, the third volume of the Misewa Saga, picks up at the end of the second volume of the saga, The Great Bear, where Eli is beneath the Great Tree, seemingly asleep. Morgan is horrified to discover that Mistapew (a.k.a. Big foot) has taken Eli’s soul and without it, the boy will perish. Thus begins Morgan’s quest to free her foster brother, overcome her fears and self-doubt, as well as reconnect with her friends in Askí and her Cree family on Earth.
Before setting out to save Eli, Morgan asks her only friend, a non-Indigenous girl, Emily, to help. Together, Emily and Morgan, in the company of Arikwachas, and eventually Mahihkan, brave the dangers of the Northern Woods following clues and visions to save Eli by rescuing his soul from an imprisonment in stone.
The Stone Child is a grand adventure, an appreciated return to the style of Robertson’s first novel in the series – The Barren Grounds. At its heart, The Stone Child is an adventure full of dangers, near misses, happy beginnings, and complicated endings, while continuing to offer readers a great many lessons. Once again, the heroine, Morgan, experiences growth by exploring her personal and gender identity, friendship, and facing her fears while attempting to reconnect with her birth family. Eli is saved, an old friend thought dead is found, and the portal in the Great Tree destroyed, leaving Morgan and Eli despondent about ever seeing their Askí friends again.
There is a bit of disconnect or disjunction in the novel; creating a feeling of two books bound together by Morgan’s efforts to meet her mom. The adventure story ends with the quest completed, a satisfying conclusion. Yet, the novel continues to follow Morgan as she convinces her step-parents to take her to Norway House to meet her Kokum and to secretly search for another portal to Askí. Although the book contains this awkward shift, the second part is important for Morgan’s development and family connections and it also prepares the ground for a fourth volume in the series. Regardless of this bump, The Stone Child is an excellent continuation of the Misewa series and is a more satisfying read than The Great Bear.
Like the other works in the series, I will be passing this novel onto my daughter. I also highly recommend this addition to both adults and youth. It is such a pleasure to read a work where Indigenous people, specifically Cree youth, are at the heartbeat of a novel.
David A. Robertson, The Stone Child: Book 3 of the Misewa Saga. Toronto: Penguin Random House, 2022.
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