A Snake Falls to Earth: Newbery Honor Award Winner

by Darcie Little Badger

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

In this breathaking work of Indigenous futurism, Darcie Little Badger weaves an unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family.

Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories.

Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He's found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake.

Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries.

And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.

BEST OF THE YEAR

Minneapolis Star Tribune• Publishers Weekly• Kirkus• Apple Books• New York Public Library• Chicago Public Library• Autostraddle

AWARDS

NEBULA AWARD WINNER
NEWBERY AWARD HONOR
AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH LITERATURE AWARD HONOR
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST

P R A I S E

“A spellbinding tale.” —Texas Monthly

“Genre-bending.”—TIME

“Undeniably charming.”—Tor.com

★ “Evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling.”—Kirkus (starred)

★ “Fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive, this story will be long in the minds of readers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ “Magical, stunning, and wholly original.”—Booklist (starred)

“A highly descriptive story which absorbs the audience into its world, readers will become invested in reading until the very end."—School Library Connection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646140923
Publisher:	Levine Querido
Publication date:	11/23/2021
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in TIME as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received the Newbery Honor, is an LA Times Book Prize Finalist, and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

Editorial Reviews

★ 2021-07-13
A 16-year-old Lipan Apache girl from Texas and a cottonmouth person from the spirit world connect when both need help.

When Nina was 9, her Great-Great-Grandmother Rosita told her a story in Spanish and Lipan Apache. Using dictionaries to painstakingly make sense of the garbled transcription app results, Nina uncovers a mysterious story about Rosita’s sighting of a fish girl in her well, long after the joined era when animal people still lived on Earth. Nina uploads her musings about her family’s stories to the St0ryte11er video platform. In the Reflecting World, innocent Oli, a cottonmouth snake person, reluctantly leaves home, settling down and befriending ancient toad Ami, two coyote sisters, and a hawk. Animal people can shift between their true and false (humanoid) forms and are able to visit Earth; Nina’s and Oli’s lives intertwine when he and his friends travel to Texas seeking help after learning that Ami is dying because the earthly population of his toad species faces extinction due to human environmental destruction. They in turn help Nina with the suspicious man lurking near her Grandma’s home, an impending tornado, and her Grandma’s unexplained illness whenever she leaves her land. Little Badger (Lipan Apache) alternates between two distinct, well-realized voices—Nina’s third-person and Oli’s first-person perspectives—highlighting critical issues of language revitalization and climate change. The story leads readers through two richly constructed worlds using a style that evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling.

A coming-of-age story that beautifully combines tradition and technology for modern audiences. (Fantasy. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews

A highly descriptive story with open dialogue which absorbs the audience into its world, readers will become invested in reading until the very end."—School Library Connection

“Little Badger’s new genre-bending narrative draws on her heritage and the tradition of story-telling that has informed her worldview.”—TIME

"Her work is magical for all ages."—Den of Geek

“Undeniably charming. There is no pretension in the writing, no forced attempts at being on trend, and yet it is completely relevant—whether it is that certain characters are asexual, or use the pronoun they, or the power of the internet, or whether it is the frightening, timely talk of rapid climate change and how it effects more lives than just those of humans, whether it is to remind us that our longevity as humans is intertwined with that of other species, and with that of the earth, or whether it is to remind us of what is most important, the one thing that may save us all—the power of stories, and community.”—Tor.com

“Both authentic and original. Strong, subtle worldbuilding allows readers to immerse themselves in Nina’s near future world of increased climate change and advanced social media technology and in Oli’s magical world of spirits, monsters, and old stories come to life.” —The Hub (a YALSA Blog)

★ "Evokes the timeless feeling of listening to traditional oral storytelling.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Though the stakes are high, Little Badger takes time to explore the ways that other species and cultures move through space and time, and what is lost when those ways of seeing disappear." — Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Draws on her scientific training and tribal storytelling to weave a spellbinding tale.” — Texas Monthly

"Themes of magic, family, asexuality, and traditional storytelling dominate in Lipan Apache author Darcie Little Badger’s delightful and uplifting second YA novel. A Lipan girl named Nina collides with Oli who is from the land of spirits and monsters. But some people will do anything to keep them apart. This is a wholesome, elegantly written read guaranteed to warm your heart!" — Autostraddle

“If Elatsoe was a ten out of ten, then A Snake Falls to Earth is a solid 11. This book could have been twice as long and I still would have begged for more. Although aimed at a young-adult audience, it has the kind of easy appeal and heartfelt tone that will entice younger kids and older adults as well. Anyone reading or buying YA needs to add this to their shelves immediately.” — Locus

“This is a delightful and imaginative novel with alternating protagonists. One is Nina, a teenager trying to translate a story told by her great-great-grandmother in her native Athabaskan language, Lipan. The other is Oli, a cottonmouth snake with the ability to shapeshift, who is learning to find his way after being pushed from the nest. Climate change features, informed by the author’s geoscience degree and PhD in oceanography. Another theme is linguistic diversity and the crucial role of storytelling in keeping cultures alive. A Snake Falls to Earth is also very much a story of friendship.”—Five Books

★ “Fun, imaginative, and deeply immersive, this story will be long in the minds of readers.”— Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ "Magical, stunning, and wholly original.”—Booklist (starred)

From the Publisher