Across the Ice: How We Saved the Ojibwe Horse
by Darcy Whitecrow and Heather M. O’Connor; illus. by Natasha Donovan
Primary    Candlewick    32 pp.
9/25    9781536229455    $18.99

Whitecrow (Ojibwe/Dakota; Seine River First Nation Band), with coauthor O’Connor, tells of the rescue of the last four remaining Lac La Croix Indigenous ponies, or Ojibwe horses, from the Canadian government’s plan to destroy them in 1977. The book opens in the modern day, as two children wait up late at night for their own Ojibwe horses to arrive at the farm. To distract the children, their grandmother retells the story of that daring wintertime rescue over a frozen lake. The framing narrative sets up a sense of anticipation that carries through until the end of the book. The excitement of the “heist across the ice” is likely to appeal to young children (and slightly older ones may ask why the Canadian government planned to shoot the wild ponies). Donovan’s (Métis Canadian; illustrator of When the Stars Came Home, rev. 9/23) vibrant illustrations show the indoor family scenes in warm coral pinks and sunny yellows, while the snowy landscape is white and blue. Later, during the rescue narrative, all of those colors appear, suggesting an integration of the people with their landscape. The illustrations depict contemporary, twentieth-century, and historical Ojibwe people in appropriate ways, portraying authentic lived experience and avoiding stereotypes while showing continuity between the past and the present.

From the November/December 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.