Find Her - by Ginger Reno (Paperback)

About the Book

"Twelve-year-old Wren fights to find her missing Cherokee mother, while also navigating a chilling town mystery, a new friendship, and a family in need of healing."--

Book Synopsis

Five years, three months, and twelve days.
That's how long Wren's mother has been missing.

An Edgar Award Nominee
An Oklahoma Book Award Winner

In dreams, Wren can see her again: her eyes, her hair, her smile. She can even hear her laugh. Her mother, one of hundreds of Native Americans considered missing or murdered in Oklahoma. Sometimes it seems like Wren and her grandmother are the only people still looking. Even more frustrating, Wren's overprotective father won't talk about it.

Wren refuses to give up, though. And an opportunity to find lost pets seems like a real way to hone her detective skills. But everything changes when one of the missing pets is found badly hurt. Soon, there are others.

With help from an unlikely friend, Wren vows to unmask whoever is behind the animal abuse. If she can do this, maybe she can do the same for her mother's case. She'll just have to keep it secret from her father who will certainly put an end to all her sleuthing if he finds out.

Find Her explores the crisis of missing Indigenous women from the perspective of a sensitive young Cherokee girl who yearns to find her mother, while also navigating a chilling town mystery, a new friendship, and a family in need of healing.

A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist
A Rise: A Feminist Book Project Top 10 Title
Named to the Oklahoma Sequoyah Masterlist
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Shortlisted for MPIBA's Reading the West Book Award

Review Quotes

"Crisp prose. . ." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Reno writes a determined protagonist who is dedicated to her culture, the Cherokee language, and uncovering truth." --Shelf Awareness

"A good murder mystery, with suspense, foreshadowing, allusion, and believable plot points, successfully walking the line between an authentic portrayal of the dark side of human nature and accessible writing for tweens and young teens." --The Horn Book

"A dramatic and captivating call for attention." --Kirkus Reviews

"Cherokee writer Reno crafts a powerful debut centering an important issue affecting Indigenous women and families; a strong purchase for all middle schools." --School Library Journal

"Reno offers readers a mix of intrigue and emotional nuance, pairing a by-the-numbers whodunnit with a thoughtful, compelling protagonist dealing with a unique type of grief, specific to the loved ones of missing Indigenous women. . . . Readers ready to wander into the darker side of mysteries but who still need a feisty heroine as their guide will find it in Wren." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

About the Author

Ginger Reno has always been a writer--it just took a while for her to figure that out. (Her first clue should've been her family always calling her "the wordy one"). An enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation, her desire to learn about Cherokee history and culture has naturally spilled over into her writing. FIND HER, her debut, is part of that journey. Ginger lives in northeast Oklahoma, within the Cherokee Nation, and spends a lot of lakefront porch time with her two favorite people--her husband and their German shepherd.