17-year-old Cory Knutson and the people in her life. Friends and neighbors in her small Wisconsin town have become bitterly divided over Indian treaty rights, and when Cory starts dating an American Indian boy, Mac, she becomes a target of the townspeople's bigotry.

Where did the idea come from?

I pulled inspiration for this baby from all sorts of places. And perhaps because I had to sort through so many ideas, this book grew very slowly. It began life as a mystery about four teenagers in northern Minnesota who uncover a marijuana smuggling operation. That idea was a dead end. The novel's next incarnation was as a collection of short stories about pregnant girls/young women living in a maternity home in northern Minnesota. The maternity home idea was from a subplot I had cut out of my first novel. Well, that went nowhere, but I felt one of the stories had potential and I decided to expand it and use some of the things I liked about the drug smuggling mystery. Of course, there are no drug smugglers or pregnant teenagers in Revolutions. Those elements were lost, but some things that were part of the early drafts remained (interracial dating, Indian treaty rights) and are at the heart of the story

Is this one your favorite?

Yes! This book went through so many lives to get where it is; it's a survivor and ya gotta love that. Also, I like Cory a lot.

		Minnesota Book Award
		ALA Quick Picks
		ALA Best Books for Young Adults
		School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
		Blue Ribbon Books, The Bulletin
		“ . . . full of spirit and sensitivity.” School Library Journal, starred
		“ . . . an engaging as well as enlightening read.” Publishers Weekly
		“Qualey can move from the comic to the sad or dramatic with ease.” The Bulletin
		“[A] sensitive look at racism.” Booklist