| Author: |
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Penina Keen Spinka
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| Title: |
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Picture Maker: A Novel |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
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| Recommended: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Hardcover |
| Pages: |
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464 |
| Date: |
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2002-01-01 |
| ISBN: |
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0525946241 |
| Publisher: |
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Dutton Adult |
| Weight: |
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1.8 pounds |
| Size: |
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1.5 x 6.5 x 9.25 inches |
| Edition: |
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First Edition |
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| Description: |
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Product Description
Born into a powerful clan of women, Picture Maker is gifted with the ability to etch drawings that foreshadow the future. Her prophecy of war saves her beloved Ganeogaono people, but leads to her own brutal capture by the savage Algonquins. Through her courage and resilient spirit, and aided by a remarkable storyteller, she escapes her captors and finds refuge with the Naskapi, a peace-loving tribe. But her journey does not end there. Picture Maker's travels take her across North America and into the distant corners of the Western Hemisphere. Certain that her future lies to the east, she crosses an icy ocean and joins the resourceful Inuit tribe. It is here that she meets Halvard, a Norse hunter who holds the key to the riddle of her birth. Together, they sail to Greenland, where Halvard's way of life comes under attack and Picture Maker is shunned as an outcast for her special gifts. Her destiny comes full circle as she struggles to save her young daughter from being taken from her, as she was long ago torn from her own clan. A towering saga of adventure and survival, love and loss, Picture Maker brings the fourteenth century to vibrant, unforgettable life . . . from the savage Iroquois Wars that marked a land forever, to the Norse invasions, and through the bloody rise of Christianity. It is a stunning achievement from an award-winning historical writer.
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| Reviews: |
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elaina (USA: TX) (2007/04/27):
[from Publishers Weekly]
A young Native American girl, separated from her tribe in the harsh 14th century, must find her way through life in this engrossing coming-of-age saga marking the adult fiction debut of young adult fiction writer Spinka (Mother's Blessing). The girl, named Picture Maker by her Ganeogaono people because of her drawings that foretell the future, is captured by the enemy Algonquins at age 13. Raped, pregnant and marked for death because she killed her attacker, the brutal Hawk Feather, Picture Maker escapes her captors and wanders for months. She eventually stumbles into a Naskapi village in the far reaches of eastern Canada, where she is taken in and made part of the tribe. Soon, though, the sense that she may still be in danger compels Picture Maker to continue her travels. She allows herself to be sold to the Inuit, who also treat her well. But her spirit is crushed when an Inuit leader, following custom, kills her newborn because the baby girl represents another mouth to feed in time of famine. Picture Maker joins a breakaway group of Inuits who journey across the Labrador Sea to Greenland, where she meets her future husband, Halvard, a Norseman, whose way of life represents yet another cultural shift for the young woman. Spinka's narrative plods at times, weighed down by unnecessary description, and the dialogue is stiffly formal. But as the narrative progresses, it eventually gathers speed and is transformed into an absorbing adventure tale told from an exhaustively researched historical perspective. Spinka, who is working on a sequel, has uncovered native traditions and beliefs in primitive North America and brought them to life through the eyes of her courageous young heroine.
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/0525946241 |
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