Publishers Weekly Starred Review: Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves

We are proud to share that Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly — one of the highest honors in pre-publication reviewing, awarded to a small percentage of the thousands of titles PW covers each year.

“Natural-feeling dialogue and measured emotional pacing keep the story grounded in Bryce’s resilient first-person POV. Skateboarding sequences carry electric energy, and the adroitly wrought activism plotline underscores challenges faced by Indigenous communities. A concluding author’s note and glossary of Ojibwe language and skate terminology add depth to this sincere portrait of grief, growth, and finding balance on and off the board.”

— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Medicine Wheels follows 15-year-old Bryce, an Indigenous teenager who moves in with his grandparents on the Wolf Creek reservation after his mother’s arrest. There, he reconnects with childhood friends who teach him to skateboard, helps organize against a pipeline threatening ancestral land, navigates first love, and prepares for a high-stakes skateboarding contest — all while facing his grandfather’s illness and his mother’s eventual return.

Medicine Wheels
Byron Graves | Heartdrum/HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 978-0-06-316042-2 | $19.99 | 352 pages | Ages 13 & up
Publication date: June 2, 2026
Agent: Terrie Wolf, AKA Literary Management