Fifteen-year-old Mark Centeno is of Chumash, Crow, Mexican, and Filipino ancestry - he calls himself "four kinds of brown." When Mark goes to live with his Chumash grandmother on the reservation in central California, he discovers a rich world of family history and culture that he knows very little about. He also finds a pathway to better understanding a part of his own identity: the world of powwow dancing. Riveted by the traditional dancers and feeling the magnetic pull of the drums, Mark begins the training and other preparations necessary for him to compete as a dancer in one of America's largest powwows. Like all of our PathFinders novels for reluctant teen readers, this contemporary story is by a Native American author, features a linear plot, and is written at a 4.0 to 4.5 reading level.

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Gary Robinson, a writer and filmmaker of Cherokee and Choctaw Indian descent, has spent more than 25 years working with American Indian communities to tell the historical and contemporary stories of Native people in all forms of media. His other PathFinder novels are Little Brother of War, Thunder on the Plains, and Tribal Journey. Gary's television work has aired on PBS, Turner Broadcasting, Ovation Network, and others. His nonfiction books, From Warriors to Soldiers and The Language of Victory, reveal little-known aspects of American Indian service in the US military from the Revolutionary War to modern times. Gary lives in rural central California.