AuthorsDen.com
Join | Login
Where Authors and Readers come together!
Featured Authors :
Michael Charles Messineo , i Cynth'ya Reed , i T. Cline , i Raven West , i Gracie McKeever , i Susan Smith , i Frank Whyte , i Todd Cheney , i Mel Hathorn , i Margot Dillard , i
Starred review - Booklist Saturday, December 11, 2004 6:45:00 AM
by Cristina Kessler
Young Adult/Teen
I just received a starred review in Booklist from the best of children's reviewers, Hazel Rochman!
*Starred Review* Gr. 7-12. Told from the viewpoint of a Masai girl in Kenya today, this novel brings close the painful conflict between the traditional and modern in a changing world. In the exciting opening scene Namelok, 12, witnesses the birth of a baby rhinoceros in the bush and vows to keep it secret to protect the animals from dangerous poachers. Her other secret is getting her period, which she keeps to herself to delay the painful traditional initiation ceremony and arranged marriage. (There's no clear explanation of what that initiation is except in the glossary; presumably it's female circumcision, which has long been practiced by the Masai and is now being challenged). Namelok wants to go to school, but her beloved father, the tribal leader, heartbroken that his people have been displaced and angered by tourists who pay for posed photos, insists she follow the old ways. Neither exotic nor sentimental, Namelok's personal story is part survival and part coming-of-age. She spends days alone in the bush as she tracks the poacher who killed the mother rhino, and she takes her first step toward independence when she learns the poacher's shocking identity. Kessler has spent many years in Kenya, and she writes with authority about both the wildlife and the cultural struggle. Always there are the questions: Is tradition sentimental? Are all new ideas bad? Hazel Rochman
Khenlee the Healter Beverly Owens
Khenlee has reached 12 Cycles of Seasons and will find which working circle she will now belong to. She is shocked to find out what the gods have decided what her life work will be.
Member BookAds
Share
Save
