9/8/2014
I enjoyed this very much. For the purpose of recommending to kids I would categorize it along with the works of Jean Craighead George, Scott O’Dell and perhaps Gary Paulson. They each build stories on the idea that we survive by accepting nature and working to understand our place in it rather than attempting to conquer it. This story is both compelling and predictable. A young girl is chosen to be the new spirit leader of her native tribe that is threatened by modern civilization. The story seems to rush her through training and maturation, then uses a tsunami as the pivotal event where she wins the trust of her people. It is told in an innocent and hopeful way that may serve as an introduction to this difficult topic, the destruction of native people by civilization. Though it is a work of fiction the author is an anthropologist and bases her work on time she spent living and studying the native people of the Andaman Islands off the coast of India.