Echohawk - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039574430X ISBN 13: 9780395744307

Publisher: Clarion Books, 1996

Synopsis

Adopted and raised by Mohicans in the Hudson River Valley during the 1730s, Jonathan Starr is sent to an English settlement to attend school.

About this title

About the Author

Lynda Durrant is the author of five well-received historical novels for Clarion, several of which have been named to state children’s choice awards lists. She lives in Bath, Ohio, with her family and a horse named Irish.

Reviews

Grade 5-9?Echohawk was born Jonathan Starr. Glickihigan, a Mohican warrior, finds the boy hiding in a log after an attack on the white camp. Though Echohawk's adoption is the result of violence, he receives enduring love as he grows up. Just as Glickihigan had been sent to school by his father to learn the language of the people in power, Echohawk is sent to learn English. His teacher is strict and disrespectful of the Mohican ways, and when he realizes that Echohawk is actually white, he decides to take him away to Boston. The man's plans trigger memories in Echohawk that culminate in the realization that Glickihigan killed his family, but in the end Echohawk says "I do not blame you." They leave the Hudson River Valley for a Mohican camp in Ohio following the murder of their people by the whites. Devastation and resilience begin and conclude the book. Details of Mohican culture, customs, and beliefs fill the pages, and the tribe's respect for nature is paramount. Durrant presents rich history, vast cultural information, and a story that will trigger discussion. An extensive bibliography demonstrates the author's depth of research. Echohawk could be compared to Conrad Richter's A Light in the Forest (Knopf, 1953); it has a great deal to offer.?Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Raised since the age of four as a son to Glickihigan, one of the Mohican warriors who massacred his parents in their Hudson Valley encampment, 13-year-old Echohawk (born Jonathan Starr) recalls only vague, disturbing impressions of his early childhood, and nothing of his natural family and native English tongue. Glickihigan, who like his own father has been schooled in the colonists' languages, sends Echohawk and his younger, Mohican brother to Saratoga-on-the-Hudson to live with a white teacher and his wife. The experience awakens in Echohawk long-buried memories and emotions, but the experiment in peaceful coexistence backfires when Echohawk overhears the teacher's plans to prevent him from ever returning to Glickihigan. First-novelist Durran imbues Echohawk's story with solid, atmospheric details about Mohican culture and history; endnotes provide further information about the Native peoples who figure in her story. Although some passages or conflicts seem rushed, the author shows a strong talent for characterization. Readers will be sorry to see the story end. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A white child raised by the Mohicans who massacred his parents is given a chance to choose which world will be his in this probing, thoroughly researched first novel. Jonathan is only four when he's dragged from the hollow log in which he'd been hiding; eight years later, as Echohawk, he remembers his previous life only in occasional dreams. Nonetheless, his wise adoptive father, Glickihigan, sends him to the settlers' school for a year to learn English and, he explains, ``the ways of the people you were born to . . . someday you may feel a pull toward them.'' Durrant's focus is less on plot or character--though she avoids typecasting and provides comic relief with the byplay between Echohawk and his feisty little brother--than on observing the cultural changes as whites move in and indigenes die or move on; the appended glossary, bibliography, and endnotes sharpen this sociological slant. Though Echohawk feels the ``pull'' of his old life, he leaves school when he learns that his intolerant schoolmaster plans to spirit him away to Boston. With his village wiped out by disease, and, in reawakened memories, his recognition of Glickihigan's role in the deaths of his parents, Echohawk faces a path that will be a solitary one. A prequel to Last of the Mohicans? No, Durrant avers, but it makes a natural lead- in. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 5^-9. In 1738, when Jonathan Starr is four, his family is killed by Mohican warriors, one of whom adopts the boy as a surrogate for his own recently deceased son. Renamed Echohawk, Jonathan grows up Mohican, with no memories of his early life until, fatefully, his adoptive father, Glickihigan, sends him and his younger brother to spend the winter with a white teacher and his wife so they may learn English (a not uncommon practice in the eighteenth century). Living among the whites causes the first stirrings of long-forgotten memories. As they become more vivid, Echohawk realizes that he is at a figurative crossroads and must decide which way to walk. Although the second half of the story suffers from some one-dimensional characterizations and a violation of the integrity of the third-person point of view, this is a remarkably powerful and emotionally affecting first novel that is distinguished by Durrant's respect for her characters, a wonderfully apposite, almost grave style, and a seamless integration of the details of daily eighteenth-century life into an absorbing novel of personal growth. Appended material includes a glossary, a list of sources, and useful background information about the setting and its native inhabitants. Michael Cart

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 039574430X
• ISBN 13: 9780395744307
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Durrant Lynda
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192