by Mary Buff
First published 1957
Dancing Cloud lives in a Navajo community where traditional ways still guide daily life. She helps her grandmother with weaving and learns the old stories passed down through generations. When outside influences begin to alter her world, Dancing Cloud must navigate between the customs she has always known and the new possibilities that emerge. Her family faces decisions about whether to embrace change or hold fast to ancestral practices. The young girl watches as some community members welcome modern ways while others resist. Dancing Cloud discovers that growing up means making choices about which parts of her heritage to preserve and which new paths to explore. Mary Buff creates a story about identity and belonging that shows how one girl learns to honor her past while stepping into an uncertain future.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, 21st-century, native-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Navajo Community
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
Hardcover · Viking Juvenile