The idea for Firekeeper’s Daughter percolated with Angeline Boulley for years, before she became a first-time novelist in her early 50s with its publication. It was worth the wait. Firekeeper’s Daughter was one of the best-reviewed books of 2021, earning raves from NPR, TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, and Publishers Weekly, among many others. In addition, it received the Printz Medal and the Morris Award, was named a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick, and has been optioned for a Netflix show by Higher Ground, the production company of Barack and Michelle Obama.
One week from today, Boulley will join us in the Library’s Trefz Forum to discuss her debut novel, which is this year’s WestportREADS selection. Before her appearance, Boulley, whose second book, Warrior Girl Unearthed, comes out in May, took some time to answer our questions on coming to the Library, her favorite books, and more.
[Related: ‘Firekeeper’s Daughter' by Angeline Boulley Named 2023 WestportREADS Book Selection]
Westport Library: What was your reaction to Firekeeper’s Daughter being named our WestportREADS pick for 2023?
Angeline Boulley: I was absolutely thrilled to be named your 2023 WestportREADS book! Community reading programs are such a great way for people to come together and discuss different perspectives. I especially love intergenerational events that bring teens, parents, and grandparents together.
What are your general thoughts on coming to The Westport Library to speak to our community?
I am excited to visit The Westport Library. A library says a lot about a community — it's evident that Westport values artistic expression and views the Library as the heart of its community. Also, I'm curious about your Seed Library.
There is so much information out there now and so many things to do and places to visit. Against that landscape, why do you think libraries still matter?
Libraries bring people together and foster engagement as a community. It's a place where everyone can access resources and ideas, and [where they] are valued as community members rather than as customers or consumers.
What are your favorite or most influential books?
Fiction:
1. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
2. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
3. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
4. The Last Time They Met by Anita Shreve
5. Chemistry by Weike Wang
6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
7. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
8. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
9. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
10. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
I'm also a huge fan of audiobooks. Here are my favorites (fiction):
1. Sadie by Courtney Summers
2. The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe
3. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
5. The Martian by Andy Weir
6. I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
7. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
8. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
9. Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
10. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
And I listen to a lot of memoir/biography/autobiography/essays:
1. Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
2. What Remains by Carole Radziwill
3. Hunger by Roxane Gay
4. Diana: Her True Story by Andrew Morton
5. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
6. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
7. Becoming by Michelle Obama
8. Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
9. God Said, "Ha!" by Julia Sweeney
10. The Drummond Girls by Mardi Jo Link
What music/musicians/albums inspire you?
Faouzia
Florence + The Machine
Luther Vandross
Martina McBride
MisterWives
One Republic
Patty Loveless
Sister Hazel
Vienna Teng
Yaz
[Related: Westport Library WestportREADS 2023 Freegal Playlist]
Join other members of the community in discussing the 2023 WestportREADS selection, Firekeeper's Daughter.
Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley, is the celebrated young adult novel centered on 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine, a Native teen who must navigate family tragedy, new relationships, and an FBI investigation to root out the corruption in her community.
Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Firekeeper’s Daughter was named a Printz Medal Winner, Morris Award Winner, American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book, TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection, 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection, Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection, and PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection.
“A contemplative exploration of existing between two cultural identities meets fake relationship romance meets backwoods thriller in this absolute powerhouse of a debut,” said NPR.
Copies of the book are available for borrowing now at The Westport Library. Firekeeper’s Daughter is also available as a digital copy (e-book) and as an audiobook.
Join Silvermoon LaRose of the Tomaquag Museum for an engaging discussion of Firekeeper’s Daughter. Although this literary work focuses on the Anishinaabe communities of the Great Lakes, the copious cultural nuances described in the book are relatable to Indigenous communities far and wide. Together we will explore this exciting publication and the relevance to the Indigenous communities of Southern New England that makes Firekeeper's Daughter meaningful to so many.
Silvermoon Mars LaRose, a member of the Narragansett Tribe, is the assistant director of the Tomaquag Museum in Rhode Island. She assists the museum's executive director with managing the museum’s collections and archives, cultural education, and the Indigenous Empowerment projects. Silvermoon has worked in tribal communities for more than 20 years, serving in the areas of health and human services and education. Throughout her career, Silvermoon has had the opportunity to travel extensively, learning from Indigenous communities throughout the United States. Silvermoon is also a member of the Rhode Island Foundation’s inaugural cohort of the Equity Leadership Initiative.
As a public servant, Silvermoon serves as the secretary for the Charlestown Conservation Commission. As an artist and educator, she hopes to foster Indigenous empowerment through education, community building, and the sharing of cultural knowledge and traditional arts. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in Justice Law and Society, from the University of Rhode Island, and a partially completed Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling from Western Washington University.
Registration is strongly suggested for this event. CLICK HERE to register to attend in person.
To watch the replay of this event, click here.
Celebrate Native American Culture
Firekeeper's Daughter Read Alikes
Local Indigenous Peoples
A good book is an immersive experience, an opportunity for the reader to get lost in imagination and explore a new world. A great book does that and more — it brings a community together to discuss, debate, and share in its wonder.
That is the goal of WestportREADS, which was created in 2002 as a way for Westporters to bond over a book and deepen the community’s engagement in literature.
The 2023 WestportREADS selection is Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, the celebrated young adult novel centered on 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine, a Native teen who must navigate family tragedy, new relationships, and an FBI investigation to root out the corruption in her community.
Copies of the book are available for borrowing now at The Westport Library. Firekeeper’s Daughter is also available as a digital copy (e-book) and as an audiobook.
In addition, throughout the months of January and February, there will be events and programs centered on Firekeeper’s Daughter, including book discussions, celebrations, learning opportunities, and more. The capstone event will be held Thursday, February 16, when Boulley appears in-person at the Library to deliver the WestportREADS keynote address.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate Firekeeper’s Daughter as the 2023 WestportREADS selection and ecstatic to have her in the Library to deliver this year’s keynote,” said Westport Library Executive Director Bill Harmer. “Angeline is a master storyteller with a tale that will resonate throughout the Westport community and spark discussion and conversation in the way only a great book can.”
Boulley is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and hails from Sugar Island, Michigan, located between the state’s Upper Peninsula and Canada. She served as her tribe’s education director and assistant executive director and on the board of regents at Bay Mills Community College before becoming director for the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education, and most recently, a first-time published novelist at age 54.
Boulley told The New York Times that she first had the idea for Firekeeper’s Daughter in high school but didn’t start writing it until she was 44. “The story started out as a whisper and then it got louder and louder,” she told the Times.
The book is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick. It is being adapted at Netflix for TV with former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground.
Among its many honors, Firekeeper’s Daughter was named a Printz Medal Winner, Morris Award Winner, American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book, TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection, 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection, Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection, and PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection.
“Hitting hard when it comes to issues such as citizenship, language revitalization, and the corrosive presence of drugs on Native communities, this novel will long stand in the hearts of both Native and non-Native audiences,” raved Publishers Weekly.
Said NPR: “A contemplative exploration of existing between two cultural identities meets fake relationship romance meets backwoods thriller in this absolute powerhouse of a debut.”
Boulley’s father is a traditional firekeeper, which she described as one “who strikes ceremonial fires at spiritual activities in the tribal community and ensures protocols are followed.” She currently lives in Southwest Michigan but said that “my home will always be Bahweting (the place of the rapids) in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Past WestportREADS selections include The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, Towards a More Perfect Union: Confronting Racism by Layla Saad, and Exit West by Moshin Hamid, among others. For more past WestportREADS selections, and to learn more about the annual event, visit the WestportREADS homepage on The Westport Library website.
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Firekeeper’s Daughter Companion Books
Preschool and K-2
Fry Bread by Kevin Maillard
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
Grades 2-5
Jo Jo Makoons series by Dawn Quigley
We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell (nonfiction)
Middle School
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids (short stories)
She Holds Up the Stars by Sandra Laronde
Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection
Author Angeline Boulley shares her novel, Firekeeper's Daughter, with Ramin Ganeshram and answers your questions. Firekeeper’s Daughter is the celebrated young adult novel published in 2021 centered on 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine, a Native teen who must navigate family tragedy, new relationships, and an FBI investigation to root out the corruption in her community.
Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Firekeeper’s Daughter was named a Printz Medal Winner, Morris Award Winner, American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book, TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection, 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection, Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection, and PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection.
Community Partner: Westport Museum for History & Culture
IF YOU MISSED THE EVENT, YOU MAY WATCH HERE
Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island. Firekeeper's Daughter is her debut novel, and was an instant #1 NYT Bestseller.
Ramin Ganeshram is the executive director of the Westport Museum for History and Culture. Ramin was educated as a journalist at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and has spent her career researching and writing about culture and history as both a features writer and editor and through the context of food and travel. She is also a professionally trained chef. As a writer Ramin has written seven books and has contributed articles on historical America, immigrant foodways and colonial New York cuisine and commerce to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink In America, Savoring Gotham, and the Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia. Ramin has also been a peer reviewer for the Journal of Food, Culture, & Society. She has been a speaker at City University of New York, The New York Folklore Society, the American Library Association and others.
Firekeeper's Daughter has a riveting plot that has all the hallmarks of a crime thriller while simultaneously questioning all the assumptions that the genre usually makes about policing and justice. I hit the middle and then couldn't put it down. But Firekeeper's Daughter is so, so much more than a thriller or a mystery. NPR
Featuring prolific use of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language), this wonderfully tribally specific story offers powerful messages about what it can mean to be an Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman): “complex and sometimes exhausted, but mostly brave.” Hitting hard when it comes to issues such as citizenship, language revitalization, and the corrosive presence of drugs on Native communities, this novel will long stand in the hearts of both Native and non-Native audiences. Publisher's Weekly
Angeline Boulley
Firekeeper's Daughter Book Guide
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
Firekeeper’s Daughter brings to light the impact of a traumatic experience, not only on one generation but on subsequent generations after the event. Join Deana Paqua, professor at Western Connecticut State University and teacher and practitioner of Cross-Cultural Energy Medicine, for a discussion and experiential workshop on legacy trauma, how it can affect us — cross culturally — in our everyday lives, and how we can begin to understand and heal its impact on us and our descendants.
Registration is highly recommended for this in-person event at the library.
Deana Paqua is a teacher and practitioner of cross-cultural energy medicine and contemporary shamanism, a licensed massage therapist and reiki master teacher in practice for more than 22 years. She is also an adjunct professor at Western Connecticut State in Danbury, Connecticut, and serves on the advisory board of the Institute of Holistic Health Studies. Deana has had the humbling honor of studying and working with Indigenous elders and healers from multiple tribes and traditions across the globe, in particular from North and South America, and Tibet.
Generational Trauma
Mental Health
Opioid Addiction
Join other members of the community in discussing the 2023 WestportREADS selection, Firekeeper's Daughter.
Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley, is the celebrated young adult novel centered on 18-year-old Daunis Fontaine, a Native teen who must navigate family tragedy, new relationships, and an FBI investigation to root out the corruption in her community.
Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Firekeeper’s Daughter was named a Printz Medal Winner, Morris Award Winner, American Indian Youth Literature Award YA Honor Book, TIME Magazine Best YA Book of All Time Selection, 2021 Kids’ Indie Next List Selection, Entertainment Weekly Most Anticipated Books of 2021 Selection, and PopSugar Best March 2021 YA Book Selection.
“A contemplative exploration of existing between two cultural identities meets fake relationship romance meets backwoods thriller in this absolute powerhouse of a debut,” said NPR.
Copies of the book are available for borrowing now at The Westport Library. Firekeeper’s Daughter is also available as a digital copy (e-book) and as an audiobook.
Angelline Bouley
Firekeeper's Daughter Book Guide
Firekeeper's Daughter Read Alikes
Firekeeper's Daughter is a novel that ranges far and wide, encapsulating Native American culture, family tragedy, and also ice hockey, with much of the novel's action set around the game.
If you've ever wondered what hitting a puck into the goal feels like, members of the Wreckers hockey team will be joining us during the free skate at the Longshore PAL skating rink.
Members of The Westport Library staff will be there to share copies of the WestportREADS choice and information about other events. Please join us!
Hockey
Indigenous American Heritage
Celebrate Native American Culture
Join other members of the community in discussing this year's WestportREADS selection, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.
Please consider joining the discussion on March 29.
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
Created in 2002, WestportREADS is designed to deepen engagement in literature by the community reading the featured book and joining in a book discussion and programs. WestportREADS is supported through a generous bequest by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.
Community Partner: Westport Weston Family YMCA
Join other members of the community in discussing this year's WestportREADS selection, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.
This event will take place at the Lucille Lortel White Barn at the Westport Country Playhouse (25 Powers Court, Westport).
In accordance with the Playhouse’s policy, all attendees will be required to show proof of full vaccination (in the form of a CDC Vaccination Card or a photo or photocopy of the card).
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
Created in 2002, WestportREADS is designed to deepen engagement in literature by the community reading the featured book and joining in a book discussion and programs. WestportREADS is supported through a generous bequest by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.
Community Partner: Westport Country Playhouse
WestportREADS 2022
What do I Read Next?
Join other members of the community in discussing this year's WestportREADS selection, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.
This event will take place at MoCA Westport (19 Newtown Turnpike, Westport). Please register.
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
Created in 2002, WestportREADS is designed to deepen engagement in literature by the community reading the featured book and joining in a book discussion and programs. WestportREADS is supported through a generous bequest by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.
Community Partner: MoCA Westport
WestportREADS 2022
Fantasy 101
Fiction and Non-Fiction We're Excited About
This discussion has been postponed to the April 3rd event at the Westport Country Playhouse. Please register.
Join other members of the community in discussing this year's WestportREADS selection, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
Created in 2002, WestportREADS is designed to deepen engagement in literature by the community reading the featured book and joining in a book discussion and programs. WestportREADS is supported through a generous bequest by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.
