A review by cottonquilts
Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley

4.0

This is very much an insider’s story. Quigley, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa woman, relates that the book is based in stories from her growing up and from people around her. While I feel confident in reviewing this #ownvoices book that is outside my culture, I did feel the need to verify some of the facts and to be sure my names and descriptions were correct. From reading the Notes at the end of the book and checking with Cynthia Leitich Smith and Debbie Reese, I think I know a little more about Native American culture than I did before beginning this review. We have to learn to ask what we don’t know. There are elements of the book that belong in a Native American book, but not in a review written by an African American woman. Given that ‘Apple’ is in the title and is the name of the character, I had to use it and explain it. Slurs should be left alone. But, Apple Starkington wasn’t that slur. She was the apple of her mother’s eye.
full review is on my blog https://campbele.wordpress.com/2018/10/04/review-apple-in-the-middle/