Chasing Painted Horses by Drew Hayden Taylor

We meet city police officer Ralph Thomas on a winter day in Toronto. "A first Nations man authorized to toss white people in jail," he's chosen to live and work "among the concrete mountains." Though he misses his northern home, with its clean silence and access to wild meat like moose and elk, there are compensations. Here he can see movies at noon, shop any time, eat food from anywhere in the world, and meet "more women he's not related to."

On this particular day, Ralph sees some graffiti that stirs up memories of his childhood. He's deeply unsettled by the conviction that the remarkable painting of the horse has been done by Danielle, a kid he knew briefly in elementary school on the Otter Lake reserve. He and his family tried to help this neglected little girl, but when social services came calling, her family upped stakes and left town.

Under the sharp questioning of Harry, a homeless man Ralph treats to a meal in Tim Horton's, he realizes that the incident with Danielle started him on the trajectory to become a policeman, in the hope of making a positive difference.

As Ralph remembers his childhood, we meet his mother, Liz, an artistic soul who possesses "the energy that could fuel a thousand bingo games." One of her many bright ideas is to create The Everything Wall, where kids can try their hand at painting pictures. Danielle is thin, solitary, undernourished and dressed in clothing too small and inadequate to the weather, but she astonishes everyone by painting a horse that seems to leap right off the wall.

When Ralph, his sister and his friend learn that Danielle's mother told her she was bad and that's why Santa didn't bring her presents this year, the kids are confused, because they know "no parent should tell a child something like that. Santa was supposed to be like Jesus, he had to like everybody, even though he knew who was naughty or nice." They feel very sad about the neglect and unkindness suffered by their artistic schoolmate. Ralph was only eleven when he and his sister asked their parents to help Danielle. They told the social services woman, who "looked into it" but could do little. In the end, their efforts backfired, forcing young Ralph to confront a deep philosophical question. What can we do in the face of another's suffering?

In Ralph's work as a policeman, he's learned that "Wisdom and knowledge come with many faces." Deciding that "it didn't hurt to investigate all possibilities, he decides to trust Harry, "the crazy homeless man" who can read people's characters in their eyes.

In his Acknowledgements, the author says that this tale, which he touched on earlier in a short story and a play "nagged him" to be more fully explored. There is something mysterious, something ancient, about Danielle -- hinted at by a reference to the cave paintings of Lascaux that inspire her in a book given as a prize in the art competition. Taylor thanks his publisher for "giving my little girl and her Horse a larger pasture to explore."

Though the work has moments of the hallmark humour of its author, this time Drew Hayden Taylor chose a more sombre tone for his tale.