Embedded research is information that is embedded so seamlessly into the story that it enriches the detail and realism in the story without seeming didactic. After introducing students to novels with embedded research, I would ask them to research a topic of interest and have them embed it in their own story. This month I am recommending three new novels that are enhanced by embedded research. Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (The Firekeeper's Daughter) explores the issues of repatriation of Indigenous artifacts, as well as murdered Indigenous women. One with the Waves by Verzna Andrews introduces a grieving teen who experiences the healing power of surfing. Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning is an adult crossover book about the unionization of miners in early 20th century Colorado as seen through the eyes of a teenage daughter of one of the miners.
In Warrior Girl Unearthed Perry Firekeeper-Birch, a bi-racial (Black and Anishinaabe) teen whose twin Pauline is the achiever, hopes to spend her summer fishing and slacking off. However, after trashing her aunt's car, she finds herself working with Pauline in the Sugar Island Ojibwe Tribe's summer internship program to pay for damages. She is assigned to work at the tribal museum where she discovers remains and artifacts from deceased Anishinaabe tribe members are being claimed by the local university. Determined to return them to the tribe, she comes up with a heist plan and in doing so uncovers a mystery involving missing Indigenous women. Always headstrong, Perry gets into trouble by acting before she thinks. Adding first love, sexual harassment, and colorism issues to this thriller makes for an engaging and thought-provoking read. The author, who is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, includes a great deal of information about repatriation of cultural artifacts and human remains, as well as missing Indigenous women, both pressing issues for Native Americans.
One with the Waves is set in South California in the 1980s. Following her father's death from cancer, Ellie Brzozowski's mom, a NYC gallery curator, sends her to live with her Aunt Jen and Uncle Charlie in California. She doesn't fit in with the preppie girls at her new high school, who bully her and call her a beach rat. Both avid surfers, Jen and Charlie foster her interest in surfing, which becomes her passion and her refuge. Her magical encounters with dolphins, whales and sea lions, as well as other accomplished surfers who befriend her, aid in the healing process. When her mom arrives for the summer, Ellie recognizes her mom is an alcoholic and fears that she will force her to move back to NYC. Ellie navigates the challenges at school and with her mother, employing the newfound strength and confidence she has developed through surfing. The author, who is a "soul surfer mom," fills the novel with authentic details about surfing, beautifully capturing the solitude and healing power of being a one with the ocean.
Gilded Mountain introduces teenage Sylvie Pelletier who moves from Vermont to Moonstone, Colorado, in the early 20th century, after her father Jacques loses his mining job over unionizing issues. She and her mother and brother join her father who is now mining marble in Colorado. Leaving her family's shanty in Quarrytown, Sylvie takes a job in Moonstone with K.T. Redmond, a female socialist newspaper editor who champions the labor cause and is critical of the Padgett family who own the mine. When at K.T's urging, Sylvie takes a job as secretary to "Countess" Inge Padgett, she is exposed to their opulent lifestyle and deplorable labor practices, secretly reporting back to K.T. Meanwhile, Jacques and outside labor organizers attempt to unionize the miners with dire consequences. Sylvie finds herself drawn to Jasper Padgett, the heir to the Padgett fortune and sympathetic to the Gradys, former slaves who are now the Padgett's' servants but dream of starting a utopian Black community in Eastern Colorado. Sylvie struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties toward the vastly differing worlds she is inhabits. Drawn from true stories of Colorado history, this is a coming-of-age tale infused with love and loss, as immigrants and robber barons develop the American West.
