This is not a book that would normally make it to the cashier in my hands, but I happened to pick it up at a friend's house and couldn't put it down - I had to run out and buy it to finish the last few chapters! First, it is based on the true story of an Ojibway hero – this alone is reason enough to read it because there are very few non-aboriginal Canadians who have any understanding of the contributions of aboriginal people in our history. This gentle, quiet aboriginal boy joins with the Canadian forces in WWI at the urging of his rather flamboyant best friend. The story captivated me from the start – the relationship between the two boys, their immersion into a totally different world than the one they grew up in, the shock and horrific realities of war, how they survived, their memories of growing up at home, their struggle to remain connected to their spirit… This is also a story of the boy’s amazing aunt who is a type of seer who managed to rescue herself from the reserve and the two boys from residential school, and yet seems to have lost them to another country’s war! Highly recommended read.