Winner, 2017 Kirkus Prize (Young Readers' Literature)
Winner, 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text)
Winner, 2018 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic

Winner, 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature 

Winner, 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award

Finalist, 2018 Forest of Reading - White Pine Awards
Shortlisted, 2018 CBC Canada Reads
Shortlisted, 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award

Finalist, 2018 Trillium Book Award

Selection, 2019 Global Read Aloud

Selection, 2019 Amnesty International Book Club

Selection, 2017 OLA Best Bets

Selection, Time Magazine's 100 Best YA Books of All Time

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Reviews

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“Miigwans is a true hero; in him Dimaline creates a character of tremendous emotional depth and tenderness, connecting readers with the complexity and compassion of Indigenous people. A dystopian world that is all too real and that has much to say about our own.” Starred review
— Kirkus Reviews

 

“There's a quality in Dimaline's writing that reached from the page, into my being ... That's a specific reference to the residential schools of the past, where so much was taken from Native children. It is one of many points in The Marrow Thieves where — painfully or with exquisite beauty — Dimaline's story resonates with me. It will resonate with other Native readers, too, especially those who are Anishinabe. Several tribal nations are mentioned in here, too ... There's so much more to say ... about Miggs and Isaac, about Ri, about Minerva, about French. But I'll stop and let you be with these achingly dear characters. I highly recommend The Marrow Thieves.”
— Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature

 

“A timely and necessary read ... powerful and endlessly smart, it’s a crucial work of fiction for people of all ages.” Starred review
— Quill & Quire

 

“In The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline creates a near-future world which distinctly echoes our own, current and past traumas that have come back to repeat themselves, fiction with a basis in reality that gives the narrative a sheen of hard truths, following the trials and tribulations of a relatable cast of characters and their struggles to survive, and live their lives with the love and safety denied to them. The high-stakes tension of each scene pulls the reader along through the story, with a core message about our dreams and culture, which despite losses, has the potential to heal, and the power to restore.”

— Trillium Book Award Jury Citation

 

“The book brilliantly connects the legacy of residential schools to a dystopian post-climate-change future where only Indigenous people are able to dream. Dimaline’s novel reminds us of the power of storytelling and the importance of community, reinforced for the disenfranchised children by the wisdom of the heroic elder, Miigwans. The writing is painful yet beautiful, bleak but ultimately hopeful. In this era of reconciliation, Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves is a work of speculative fiction that resonates and stays with the reader long past the last page.”

— Sunburst Award Jury Citation

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“Dimaline’s terrific writing is taut, energetic and confident, filled with empathy and poetry.”

— Lorina Mapa, Amnesty International Book Club