Ghost Hawk is the work of a writer with great imaginative power and long-practiced narrative skill. I was swept up in the story, shocked, moved, and enthralled - and completely convinced by the historical background. I haven't read anything better for a long time."
"Susan Cooper has asked the ghosts of our shared history to sing. And when she asks, they always do."
"Cooper here demonstrates that there’s plenty of magic left in her pen, delivering a powerful and memorable novel."
In this well-researched and elegant historical fantasy, a Wampanoag boy named Little Hawk survives the loss of his village to a plague contracted from the Pilgrims, who have recently founded Plymouth. Later he befriends a white boy, John Wakeley, only to have a shocking act of violence irrevocably alter their lives. As the years pass, John grows to manhood, learns a trade, marries, and avoids the Pilgrims’ bigotry, drawn to the more tolerant principles of Roger Williams, founder of the colony of Providence. Despite its occasional violence, much of veteran fantasist Cooper’s story is understated, devoted to what is essentially philosophical discussion and a vivid depiction of the Massachusetts wilderness. Although the tale unfolds almost entirely in English, Cooper impressively conveys the barriers, both cultural and linguistic, that divided natives and settlers, sometimes with horrifying results. Both Little Hawk and John maintain their essential decency in the face of the world’s injustice, while Cooper demonstrates, as Little Hawk says, “Change is made by the voice of one person at a time.” Ages 10–14. Agent: Rubin Pfeffer, East West Literary Agency. (Aug.)
* "Cooper has written a richly plotted, lyrical, and near-epic novel...this is simply an unforgettable reading experience."
"Ghost Hawk is a treasure.... Beautifully written, vivid with its manifest love for the land, it is a story of suffering and survival, both tragic and heroic."
Jim Dale’s deep tones recount the tale of Little Hawk, a young warrior of the Pokanoket tribe, and John Wakeley, a young colonist from Plymouth, Massachusetts, in the mid-1600s. Little Hawk and John meet in the wilderness, introduced by Squanto, a native interpreter. Not long afterward, Little Hawk is accidentally killed by a white colonist, yet he remains in the area as a ghost who teaches John the words and ways of the natives. With broad accents and dramatic phrasing, Dale performs this story of growing up in early America. Cooper’s words and Dale’s performance provide a dramatic backdrop for learning about religious tolerance, hardship, and survival in New England. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
A white boy and a Native American youth form an enduring bond in this historical fantasy set in 17th-century Massachusetts. Eleven-year-old Little Hawk survives the Pokanoket tribe's "proving time" alone in the winter woods for three months only to discover his village devastated by a plague transmitted by encroaching white settlers. Later, Little Hawk's killed by a paranoid white settler while trying to help the injured father of a white boy named John Wakeley. Upset by the injustice of Little Hawk's murder, John's sent by his stern Puritan stepfather on a seven-year apprenticeship north of Plymouth. Here, John encounters Little Hawk's ghost, who becomes his confidant and friend. Gradually, John becomes an outspoken advocate for native people, challenging the bigoted, intolerant Puritans and eventually joining separatist Roger Williams in Providence Plantation. Narrator Little Hawk describes his brief life as a Pokanoket youth and continues as ghost observer with the story of John Wakeley and the increasing unrest between settlers and local tribes. Cooper's thorough historical research provides authentic period detail, contrasting the attitudes and lifestyles of settlers and native people. This sensitive portrayal of an unusual friendship poignantly reveals how greed and intolerance led to Native American displacement in colonial Massachusetts. (map, timeline, author's note) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
