{"id":46244,"date":"2026-05-08T22:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T02:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46244"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T02:07:11","slug":"review-of-buffalo-dreamer-by-violet-duncan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46244","title":{"rendered":"Review of Buffalo Dreamer, by Violet Duncan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/buffalo_dreamer_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/buffalo_dreamer_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-46499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/buffalo_dreamer_large.jpg 250w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/buffalo_dreamer_large-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><em>Buffalo Dreamer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Violet Duncan<br \/>\nread by Ashley Callingbull<\/p>\n<p>Listening Library, 2024.  2 hours, 10 minutes.<br \/>\nReview written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.<br \/>\nStarred Review<br \/>\n2024 National Book Award Finalist, Young People&#8217;s Literature<br \/>\n2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book, Middle Grades<\/p>\n<p><em>Buffalo Dreamer<\/em> is short and sweet and packs a lot of power.<\/p>\n<p>12-year-old Summer and her family are traveling to Canada to the reservation where her mother grew up for their annual vacation.  Summer&#8217;s looking forward to wonderful times, riding horses with her cousin and enjoying her grandparents and her extended family.<\/p>\n<p>But when she crosses the border into Canada and nears the reservation, she starts having vivid dreams about a girl running away from a residential school.  Meanwhile, modern equipment has been brought to the residential school where Summer&#8217;s grandfather went to school &#8211; and they have found bodies of kids buried there.<\/p>\n<p>Could Summer&#8217;s dreams be showing her what really happened?<\/p>\n<p>This book navigates the line between talking about horrific abuse in the past and expressing confident joy in the present &#8211; and the power of connection between the generations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.violetduncan.com\/\">violetduncan.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0CP896V1T\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/buffalo_dreamer.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/buffalo_dreamer.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?page_id=23\">Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan read by Ashley Callingbull Listening Library, 2024. 2 hours, 10 minutes. Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review 2024 National Book Award Finalist, Young People&#8217;s Literature 2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book, Middle Grades Buffalo Dreamer is short and sweet and packs a lot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,10,21,32,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-childrens-fiction-review","category-contemporary","category-historical","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46244"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46501,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46244\/revisions\/46501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}