Synopses & Reviews
Near the end of the Stone Age, about 12,000 years ago, a young woman named Anooka lives with her family by a salmon-filled river. Although life with the Salmon Clan is comfortable, Anooka is restless. She discovers she has a talent for shaping the strange riverbank mud into small animal figures. Because her actions resemble carving, a practice prohibited to women, Anooka is forbidden to make her animals. Soon she begins to question the only traditions she has ever known. When a mysterious woman appears across the river, Anooka is faced with the most monumental decision of her life. Should she follow Raven Woman or stay with her clan? Although Anooka and her people led lives very different from our own, Marjorie Cowley shows us that there are enormous parallels between their world and ours. What connects us to Anooka's world across thousands of years are the qualities that make us human.
Review
"The Incan empire's four-century ascendance has inspired plenty of nonfiction and over-the-top fantasy but perplexingly little historical fiction for kids. This recommended title can help fill that void."
—Kirkus
"This quiet, deeply moving story reminds readers of the true nature of beauty."
—Booklist Online
"Micay's intimate narration weaves in Quechua vocabulary and abundant references to Incan folklore, enhancing the novel's vivid sense of time and place."
—Publishers Weekly
"A gripping story of a girl who transforms from a cowed outcast into a confident leader, this will find an audience among tweens and teens beginning to question what fate has in store for them."
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Review
"A quiet but powerful novel that will provoke thoughtful introspection." School Library Journal
Review
"A superbly written novel, rich in plot and historical detail." School Library Journal, Starred
Synopsis
At the height of the Incan empire, a girl called the Ugly One because of a disfiguring scar on her face, seeks to have the scar removed and instead finds a life path as a shaman.
Synopsis
The Incan empire of the fifteenth century, in what is todays Peru, is the setting for this story of twelve-year-old Micay, whose life is defined by the scar that disfigures her face. Ignored by most of the adults in her Andean village and bullied by the boys, who call her Millay, “Ugly One,” she keeps to herself and tries to hide the scar with her long hair. Her only comfort is her family and her trust in the powers of Inti, the Sun God, until a stranger traveling to Machu Picchu gives her a baby macaw. This ugly chick becomes a beautiful bird and her companion on a journey that leads her to help her people as a shaman and gives her a new name: the Marked Girl.
Synopsis
“[A] quiet, deeply moving story.” —The Bulletin
Twelve-year-old Micay walks around her fifteenth-century Incan village shielding the scarred side of her face that inspired the cruel name Millay, or “Ugly One.” She escapes to her huaca rock, avoiding the villagers who shun her. Her world shifts dramatically when a stranger gives her a sorry-looking baby macaw. The bird becomes her dear companion on a journey that ultimately leads her to a new role as shaman in Machu Picchu’s Sacred Sun City. Told in an engaging storyteller’s voice, this is a stirring tale of a girl who finds her own strength.
Synopsis
I had always been ugly, as far back as I could remember. Micay has a deep scar that runs like a river from her right eye to her lip. The boys in her Incan village bully her because of it, and most of the adults ignore her. So she keeps to herself and tries to hide the scar with her long hair, drawing comfort from her family and her faith in the Sun God, Inti. Then a stranger traveling from his jungle homeland to the Sacred Sun City at Machu Picchu gives her a baby macaw, and the path of her life changes. Perhaps she isnt destined to be the Ugly One forever. Vivid storytelling and rich details capture the life and landscape of the Incan Empire as seen through the eyes of a young girl who is an outsider among her own people.
Synopsis
When Shutoks nomadic family must follow the bison herds for their livelihood, they abandon him, believing and fearing that the bad fortune that has crippled Shutoks back may spread to them. But Shutok stubbornly follows them across the plains and prairies. Eventually, he cant keep up and is left to forge his own way in the primitive wilderness of North America. Shutoks people return in the spring, when a turn of events helps him win their respect and forces them to reconsider their primeval superstitions.
Synopsis
As part of a Spanish expedition to the New World, a Jesuit seminarian witnesses the enslavement and exploitation of the Mayas and is seduced by greed and ambition.
About the Author
Scott ODell (1898-1989), one of the most respected authors of historical fiction, received the Newbery Medal, three Newbery Honor Medals, and the Hans Christian Andersen Author Medal, the highest international recognition for a body of work by an author of books for young readers. Some of his many books include The Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Road to Damietta, Sing Down the Moon, and The Black Pearl.