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Books for teenagers and older children come at the beginning and books for younger children are placed at the end of the section.
Owen, an art student, is spending a few
days with his grandfather before going cave exploring with another
student. His grandfather tells him a strange story.
When he was younger Grandad had also been interested in caves.
He had read about the schoolboys who discovered the great cave
paintings at Lascaux. Later he found an article by a professor
who said the race of Cro-Magnon man extended from Moravia in the
east, through the French Dordogne to Belgium in the north and
Wales in the south. From then on Grandad became obsessed with
prehistoric Wales. He was convinced that there was a lost cave
in Wales where the ice age animals would have been painted with
as much mastery as those of the Dordogne. Grandad eventually did
find his cave but in a very strange way.
He had been exploring and walking in the hills in winter when
he was caught in a snow storm. He was lost but then he felt that
two young men were walking with him - two companions from another
age - Oak and Juniper. If they had not taken him to their cave
he would have died. And on the walls of the cave were paintings
of deer, horses and auroch. He did not remember much else. Later
a rescue helicopter caught sight of him stumbling about on the
mountainside and he was saved.
Of course no one believed him but he wrote down the story of Oak
and Juniper and now he entrusts the exercise books with the story
to Owen and that night Owen reads it.
It is the story of Juniper who cannot control his urge to make
marks with a stick - even although he knows it is forbidden. Eventually
he is blamed for the deaths of some of his tribe and exiled. He
sets out on a journey to find his mother's people. His friend
Oak goes with him.
What follows is a story of a journey across plains and through
forests and along a river: a story of danger from the elements
- ice, snow and lightening: and a story of primitive tribesmen
with their tribal customs, taboos and punishments.
A story about prehistoric times is, of necessity, a matter of
imaginative reconstruction. This is one writer's impression of
the people behind the cave paintings.
Teenage
High up in the mountains, on a snowy
ridge an archaeologist finds the body of a prehistoric man, wonderfully
preserved by the ice. The archaeologist has his daughter, Anna
Mae, working with him and one evening they have an argument.
Anna Mae ponders the reports on the iceman. "Tall, Danish
-- sort of. Probably a teenager. Probably just like us."
Her father disagrees. "I think not. Society was quite different
then."
Anna Mae loses her temper. How does her father know it was different
then? How does he know that the iceman didn't think the same way
as we do? He was a person after all. Does the archaeologist never
think that the past might be more complex than he thinks? Different
from now but just the same? It is not about facts but about how
people think and feel and live together.
This discussion ends with Anna Mae informing her father, "I
really hate you sometimes. I bet the iceman hated his dad too.
Some things never change."
This discussion forms one of the main themes of The Pits. Deep
down, were prehistoric people really different from us?
This stormy scene is witnessed by a nine-thousand-year old ghost,
Brod. The iceman was one of his friends. Anna Mae has made up
her own story about the iceman. She has decided that he was a
hero but Brod knows that this is not true. Brod tells us how the
iceman really came to die. Brod tells his story in the street
language of modern teenagers and types it up at night on the archaeologist's
computer.
Brod describes the way of life of his family and friends. The
old people lived together on the ridge, the young people lived
in the sand pits and families lived on the platform in the lake.
Brod goes into detail about their work. The women's skin-scraping
operations go on all day.
This year they were into bearskin. Exclusively. It had to be
worn greased or not at all, with bead trim, not fringes. Fringes
were last year's news ...
Brod has his problems. He belongs to the Horde, (or gang) called
the Axes. They would normally have taken over the sand pits after
the summer hunting but this year they are forestalled by another
Horde, the Pits.
But Brod has more than this to worry about. If his father is not
drunk on juniper nut gin he is strung out on birch bark
gum. Finally Brod's father is found dead. His mother dies shortly
afterwards and Brod has to look after his three young sisters.
As if this is not enough fighting breaks out between the Pits
and the Axes.
And then Brod's stubborn little middle sister insists that she
is going to take her young sister over the mountain. Over the
summit of Climbing Sky Mountain with its snow-weighted crags and
passes.
So we follow Brod's story of prehistoric gang warfare, and learn
how, with a group of friends, he finally decides to try to cross
the Mountain and how the iceman really came to die.
This book is certainly not for the traditionalists, but it does
pose some interesting questions and a fair amount of fact about
prehistoric life is trickled into the story.
Teenage
Set in the Africa of 200,000 years ago
this is the story of a group of six children. In his introduction
Peter Dickinson says that the people of these times left very
few traces:- the stone tools they made, fossils of their own bones
and the bones of animals they ate, the ashes of their fires etc.
What were they like? How did they live? We do not really know
but, using the few facts we have we can imagine and guess and
this is what Peter Dickinson has done.
The book explores some deep ideas such as the concept of the beginning
of language. The Porcupine kin have no words. Also the marsh dwellers.
Are they people or animals? Can they be people without words?
And why do men become killers?
The Kin was first published as one large book but was subsequently
published by Macmillan as four separate books.
Noli is a member of the Moonhawk kin
or tribe. She is just a girl but she is the one to whom the First
One speaks in dreams and tells her what she must know for the
safety of the kin. Moonhawk told her that their Good Place was
going to be attacked by murderous strangers but when Noli told
Bal, the leader, he struck her and told her she lied. It was to
Bal that Moonhawk came. But Noli was proved right. Their camp
was attacked and many of the kin killed. Bal escaped with a few
of them. He led them through the Dry Hills. Moonhawk came to Noli
again and told her there would be no food or water in the desert.
Again she told Bal and again he refused to listen. When Moonhawk
came a third time and told her where to find water she did not
go to Bal. She went instead to Suth, a boy a little older than
herself.
She persuades Suth to go back with her to the place where Bal
had left four of the children who were too small to walk all day
- Mana, Tinu, Ko a little boy, and Otan, Noli's baby sister. They
find the children and the water that Moonhawk had promised. Then
they climb a mountain. Once at the top they look down into a crater
and see a secret valley with grass and trees and a lake in the
centre.
They go down into the valley and are welcomed by the people who
live there. There is plenty of food but Suth is uneasy. He is
restless. He is not used to living in one place. Then he finds
out that the people of the valley - who belong to the Monkey kin
- want to keep the Moonhawks there. Their blood is sick. Their
babies are born without arms or legs. The Moonhawks have good
blood. They want to keep the Moonhawks there until they are old
enough to mate with them. This would mean the end of the Moonhawk
kin.
Suth plans an escape.
But there are strange things about the valley. Every so often
the ground shudders and shakes. There is an odd smell from the
lake - rather like rotten eggs. And there is sometimes a thundering
sound which echoes across the valley. This is Big Voice.
Then the volcano erupts and the whole mountain explodes. Amid
the devastation Suth tries to lead his little band to safety.
The Moonhawks reach the plain and Moonhawk
comes to Noli again and tells her the way they should go. But
she also says, "I shall not come again."
The children travel across the desert, survive an earthquake and
reach a canyon with a river, trees and plants and good hunting.
They stay there for a while and make friends with the people of
the canyon who belong to the Porcupine kin. Then the canyon is
laid waste by a flash flood. Those who escape find their way to
the desert where they meet up with Bal's group again. They now
face danger from a demon, man-eating lion.
The old Good Places have been destroyed and the kins must now
find new Good Places. Moonhawk comes back to Noli - but not the
old Moonhawk. A new, younger Moonhawk.
This story has interesting detail of how these people made hollow
fire logs and were thus able to carry fire around with them. It
also explores the concept of the beginning of language. The porcupines
have no words. Are they people or animals? Can they be people
without words.
The rains fail and the Moonhawks travel
across the desert looking for food. Eventually they come to a
large marsh. They can see mountains on the other side. If they
could only find a way across the marsh they would find food and
more Good Places.
A giant crocodile lives in the marsh. It crawls out and kills
one of the Moonhawks. Tinu has a plan. They make a trap and the
crocodile is killed.
Then, by using plaited mats, Ko manages to get to an island on
the marsh. He gets to know the marsh dwellers and he brings some
of them back with him. They see the body of the huge crocodile.
Later they return. The Moonhawks give the marsh dwellers the crocodile.
In return the marsh dwellers show them how to cross the marsh
by means of secret paths made of reeds and placed just under the
surface. But once they are near the far side the marsh dwellers
become anxious. There is something on the far shore of which they
are afraid.
Like the Porcupines the marsh dwellers have no words.
The Kin have crossed the marsh.
They settle down and then they find out what the people of the
marsh were afraid of and why they have taken refuge on the islands
of the marsh. They are hiding from a tribe of killers. The Kin
plan how to defeat the killers and then travel into their country
to find new Good Places. The warriors are all killed but one of
the women has a baby by one of the Kin. Mana wonders about the
tribe of killers. Why did they kill? Was it because in their own
Good Place the hunting was too easy and they had to prove that
they were men?
The children really come to life. There is Suth, young but already
a natural leader, Noli to whom Moonhawk comes in dreams and warns
her of danger to the kin, Ko who is desperate to prove himself
and win the respect of the others, Tinu who is very self conscious
of her twisted mouth and slurred speech but who is very clever
and whose ideas time and time again save the kin, and Mana the
sensitive one.
The original publication of The Kin was shortlisted for the Carnegie
Medal.
In its original format The Kin is a book for teenagers but the
four short separate books could be read by children of the 10+
age group.
This story is set at the end of the last Ice Age.
Maroo and her family have spent the summer in a hut in the mountains and, later in a cave on the seashore, but now autumn is advancing and there is a chill in the air. The time of the summer wandering is drawing to a close. It is time for Maroo and the other members of her family to return to the autumn camp which is near the winter caves. But Maroo's mother, Tikek, has a baby and they all have to wait until she is strong enough to travel so they are late setting off.
Then disaster. Maroo's father is killed
in a hunting accident and her uncle injured. There is the first
of the winter blizzards. Old Mother (Maroo's grandmother) takes
charge. They struggle across the plain as far as they can and
then make a snow house. (What we would call an igloo). They are
too weak to go any further. Old Mother says that she will stay
there with Maroo's uncle, mother, younger sister and the baby
while Maroo and her brother Otak go on to the autumn camp and
get the hunters to come back for them. They are to take Rivo with
them. (Rivo is a wild dog puppy which they have cared for since
his mother died.) Hopefully he will hunt and find food for them.
Old Mother gives Maroo careful instructions regarding the route.
It is dangerous. They have to go to the Winter Mountains, cross
a treacherous glacier and climb high into the mountains to the
Pass of the Spirits. There will be the threat of the cave lions
but Maroo is far more afraid of the Spirits of the mountain.
But she is their only hope so she sets
off with Otak and Rivo.
The background for this story is based on the work of archaeologists.
The location is the south of France and the sea is the Mediterranean.
The people were semi nomadic hunters. Archaeologists call them
the Madeleine people.
This is a well told story with a good background. The details
of their way of life are fascinating;- the way they built their
huts; how they found food; how they made fire; the clothes they
wore.
I also liked the descriptions of the countryside throughout the changing seasons. Here are two examples.
"Inside the gorge was a different world, green and rippling with birdsong. Water came sparkling down from a spring in the hills above. There were willlows growing by the stream, and a small grove of birch close against the steep rock face."
And Maroo's first sight of the sea.
"... they saw a gray expanse of
water which stretched forever. Only this water was not flat and
clear like a lake but constantly moving, and dimpling with flashes
of light and changing color, gray and green and violet."
Maroo's tribe often face danger and hunger. But they have good
times too. There is story telling and singing and dancing to drums.
This is a thrilling tale of survival against the forces of nature
but it is also a tribute to human resilience. Above all, this
is essentially a happy book - something which I find refreshing
after so many of the grimmer books which are being published today.
Very highly recommended.
This book is written by a British author
but it is published in America. It is available over the Internet
from Amazon - Amazon. www.amazon.co.uk
10+
This book was first published in America in 1995.
The origin of the relationship between man and dog is something which has always fascinated animal lovers. Thousands of years ago wolves and Stone Age Man somehow formed a bond. But how exactly? In this book Ruth Craig has given her own answer, and also a gripping story.
Malu is a young girl who is a member of a Stone Age tribe. One day she finds an orphan cub and she takes it home with her. As she has made a vow to the Moon Goddess to care for it she is allowed to keep it. But if it ever harms one of the tribe then it will be killed.
Then follows an account of the bonding between Malu and her wolf which is named Kono and also of Malu's attempts to realise her ambition. She longs to learn to be a hunter like the boys and she practises spear throwing in secret. But Malu accidentally incurs the enmity of the surly Gunto. One day Kono, thinking she is protecting Malu, attacks Gunto. In so doing she earns herself a death sentence. Malu is devastated and runs away from the shelter of the tribe taking Kono with her. Can Malu survive on her own? Can Kono help her? Are they ever to be reunited with the tribe? And how do the herd of mammoths come into all this?
An exciting story which contains much
historical information about Stone Age life -- the importance
of the cave paintings, methods of hunting, the ever present danger
of winter starvation. But history apart this is also a treat for
dog lovers with its details of how Malu learned to communicate
with Kono and of how Kono learned to make herself useful to the
tribe by guarding and hunting. And all animal lovers will find
the scene where Kono is condemned to death really poignant.
10+
This book was first published in 1996.
Medi has cares far beyond her years. Like any other teenager she
has her schoolwork. But because of a feckless, irresponsible mother
she also has to do the shopping and look after her two young half
brothers - eight year old Davey and four year old Joe-boy.
Davey is afraid of the revolving doors at the supermarket, and
not entirely without reason because the doors have stuck on several
occasions. Medi is good at making up games for the boys and she
tells them that the doors are a time machine which can take them
back through time. Once, when the doors jam and they are stuck
in the supermarket she takes them over to a display of photographs.
The supermarket has been built on the site of a Stone Age settlement
and the photographs show what archaeologists have found. There
is a photograph of the skeletons of two small boys and underneath
are the words, "Curled close together they bear witness to
a human tragedy four thousand years ago." Reading this Medi
feels very protective towards her own brothers.
Then Davey goes missing. Medi blames herself. She was to pick
him up from Cubs and she was five minutes late. At first it is
thought that Davey has been abducted but as time goes on Medi
has a startling idea. There are rumours that the supermarket is
haunted and people claim to have seen ghosts. Davey was last seen
outside the supermarket. Medi had made up a game and told Davey
that the revolving doors were a time machine? But what if she
had been right?
Medi goes back to the doors and pushes hard the wrong way - or
widdershins as the strange Mrs Vogel has told her. She suddenly
finds herself back in the Stone Age. It is the time of the Gathering
Feast. The people are about to bury the Corn Maiden - a kind of
gigantic corn dolly. But the priest of the old religion appears
and says that Earth Mother wants human blood. He wants to sacrifice
Keira, the chief's daughter. The chief also has two young sons
who are very ill. All Medi wants to do is to find Davey and get
back to her own time but, despite herself, she becomes involved
in this struggle. She finds Davey, but he is in no hurry to get
back. He knows what is wrong with the boys and he wants to cure
them. He also wants to save Keira. But is it ever possible to
change the course of history?
The ending is slightly open-ended. Back in their own time Davey
believes that they have managed to save the boys and Keira but
Medi is not so sure. The readers can decide for themselves. I
am an optimist so it is obvious what I think. There is also a
hint that Medi's mother is becoming more responsible and that
Medi may be allowed something of a more natural teenage lifestyle
in the future.
As well as the story of the power struggle between the priests
of the old and new religions and the imaginative reconstruction
of the feast and the rituals there is also much information about
everyday Stone Age life - cooking, food, clothes and animals.
The Crow Haunting is an interesting and unusual story but what
makes it special is that the basis for it is true. At Goldington
in Bedfordshire, Tesco's superstore is built over the site of
a Stone Age, and Bronze Age, sacred enclosure or henge, and burial
mound. And, as described in The Crow Haunting, at the top of the
mound three shallow graves were discovered. One was of a young
woman, the other two were of children buried in a last embrace.
The human remains, the finds and the records are now in Bedford
Museum.
Julia Jarman has taken these facts and woven a fascinating story
out of them. But I wish that a note about the archaeological discoveries
had been added to the book. Such a note always gives a book more
substance and if it is reprinted I would like to see such an addition.
10+
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