Reading Metrics
Description
The peoples of ancient Florida fear Pondwader, a young albino, but when the people manage to trade him in marriage to Musslewhite, a woman warrior, she discovers that he really is a Lightning Boy. The coauthor is Kathleen Gear.
Quick Summary
If you're into stories set in ancient times with characters who feel real and flawed, this one's set in prehistoric Florida and follows Pondwader, an albino boy everyone in his village thinks is cursed because of how he looks pale skin, light eyes, and a strange connection to storms. When he's essentially traded away as a marriage bargain to a fierce warrior woman named Musslewhite, the two have to figure out how to survive together, and along the way she realizes he's not cursed at all but something much more extraordinary. It's a slow burn in some ways since it's a long book, but the relationship between those two carries the story, and there's plenty of action with hunts, rival tribes, and the dangers of living in a wild, beautiful landscape that most kids never get to read about. Teens who like historical fiction, survival stories, or who appreciate underdog characters will probably get into it, though parents should know there's some violence that comes with hunting and tribal conflict nothing gratuitous, but it's there. The setting itself is pretty educational without feeling textbook-ish, since you learn how people actually lived thousands of years ago in the southeastern US, which makes it a good pick for anyone who's read everything else set in medieval Europe and wants something totally different. If you've enjoyed other Gear books or stories like "The Indian in the Cupboard," this has that same sense of adventure and discovery.