Ravine

Hickman, Janet

3.65

17 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 0060293675 ISBN 13: 9780060293673

Publisher: Greenwillow, 2002

When their totally different lives come into contact with one another, modern-day Jeremy and Ulf from the wizard world become friends as they try and help one another out of their unusual situation and back to their own land and time.

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About the Author:

Janet Hickman is a professor at Ohio State University, where she teaches children's literature. Ms. Hickman gerw up in a small town in Ohio and says she was blessed by having many strong women in her family and in her life. She has written several books for children, including Zoar Blue and The Thunder-Pup. In Her Own Words...

"When I was little, the stories that interested me most were not the ones my parents read to me but the real-life ones I overheard in my grandparents' kitchen or on their front porch, where personal crises and world disasters were discussed by great-aunts and uncles and older cousins and assorted friends and neighbors. In Kilbourne, the tiny Ohio town where I grew up, extended families kept in touch, the past seemed very close to the present, and I spent a lot of time listening to people talk. What I've kept from that time in my childhood is a close attachment to family, a sense of connection to other generations, and an ear for the language of everyday speech.

"As soon as I could read, books became my favorite companions, thanks in part to a bookmobile that brought the library to us. Reading a lot soon led me to think that I could make stories of my own. I've been picking away at writing ever since I produced, at age seven, A Cowgirl Romance.

"When I went to college, though, it wasn't to study writing. That would have been considered impractical. I became a teacher instead. My first students were eighth graders who complained about an assignment from their history book. "Take the information in this chapter and use it as background for writing a story." To quiet their complaints (and because it sounded like fun), I promised to write the assignment too, The result was my first paid publication, accepted on its first submission to a magazine. This extraordinary beginner's luck earned me a few points with the eighth grade and made me think I should write a novel.

"Over the next several years, during summers off while I was teaching and in odd moments when I became a stay-at-home mom, I wrote several novels that earned nothing but rejection slips and then, finally, four that were published.

"By the end of that time I had also completed a Ph.D. at Ohio State University, where I now teach children's literature. My students are mostly teachers of grades K-8. Like my first eighth graders, most of them seem interested in having a professor who is also a writer. But working at two desks slows me down. My fifth book, Jericho, is short, but it took more than ten years to write-maybe because the story is so close to my own life. Now that my husband and I have married children, a grandchild, and a young nephew growing up as our son, its theme of family continuity seems more important to me than ever."

From School Library Journal:

Grade 4-6-Jeremy loves to stage battles with his collection of ancient warriors and is proud of his beautiful but willful collie, Duchess. Ulf also loves the dog, but calls her Magic, since it seems that magic brings her to him. Captured in a raid on his homeland when he was a small child, he is despised as an outlander. The ravine is where the two boys meet, brought together through a time slip found by Duchess. When she bounds away into it, Jeremy follows and sees a small boy in strange clothing. Later, his friend Quinn leads him on an adventure game into the ravine and they see what looks like one of their ancient warriors riding downstream in full battle dress. Then, one Saturday, Jeremy, his brother, Quinn, and Quinn's sister are all dragged unwillingly through the time slip. Back home, Jeremy's mother has been translating an ancient saga relating the tale of two warring tribes. Unbeknownst to her or the children, those same events are actually taking place in Ulf's world. Jeremy and Quinn find themselves in the middle of a real-life battle, and survival becomes their first priority, followed by getting everyone safely home. If that wasn't enough for a good story, Jeremy ultimately has to decide where Duchess really belongs. This is a simple but captivating story. There is no attempt to explain the finer points of the time slip, or how and why what appear to be early medieval European tribes are sharing the same time/space with an American town. However, young readers will empathize with the youthful protagonists of both time periods and find themselves caught up in the adventure.
Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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