Go to Your Room!: After she hits Mr. Charles, Nizhoni is sent to her room. Without her phone, to boot. Who are the police going to believe? Some random brown kid, or a famous executive with his blond hair and a fancy suit that reeks of money?

Kids books should be political. In Race To the Sun, the politics is in a monster’s ability to shapeshift into a rich white capitalist oil tycoon. Cool Sword: Nizhoni's mother gets one made by Johonaa'ei from lightning. According to its creator, "it always strikes true". Along the way, the children learn lessons about bravery, sacrifice, loyalty, and the importance of their roots and their connection to their people’s past. The Smart Guy: Nizhoni's best friend Davery. He loves reading (and his father is a librarian), knows a lot about various topics, is very Internet-savvy and his magical weapon is a book of knowledge.

The Bully: Adrien Cuttlebush, who for some reason has decided to turn Mac's life into hell. Which includes beating Mac up and destroying his art supplies. And then, at one point Mac uses his ancestral powers to stop Adrien and his friends. What their ancestors experienced may always be a part of them but colonialism changes and transforms much like Mr. Charles does. Indigenous people adapt and continue to survive in response to colonialism.

I had a blast listening to the audiobook for this. The characters are fun and read as the ages they are. Sometime middle grade characters can seem too mature or too immature, but Nizhoni, her bother, and her friend seemed to fit actual middle schoolers well. They worry about popularity and in hind-sight, relatively small things but are vastly important at that age.I like reading Riordan’s books and love that he has a series where underrepresented cultures get to tell their stories in a Riordan-style way. Sounded like a win-win until Rebecca Roanhorse (Ohkay Owingeh) was chosen to write a Diné story. Why would they choose a non-Diné to tell the Diné story? Or why didn’t they have Roanhorse tell an Ohkay Owingeh story? Seems to go against the premise of this whole series. Poverty Food: According to Nizhoni's dad, frybread is "crisis food" and that's why he hasn't taught her how to make it. Spider Woman agrees, as this is not traditional Navajo dish, the recipe was created when the Navajo had only flour, water and baking soda. Still, they can be delicious.