Written in Stone, Rosanne Parry

From the Publisher: Rosanne Parry author of Heart of a Shepherd, shines a light on Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s, a time of critical cultural upheaval.

Pearl has always dreamed of hunting whales, just like her father. Of taking to the sea in their eight-man canoe, standing at the prow with a harpoon, and waiting for a whale to lift its barnacle-speckled head as it offers its life for the life of the tribe. But now that can never be. Pearl's father was lost on the last hunt, and the whales hide from the great steam-powered ships carrying harpoon cannons, which harvest not one but dozens of whales from the ocean. With the whales gone, Pearl's people, the Makah, struggle to survive as Pearl searches for ways to preserve their stories and skills.

I read an e-ARC of this title

Strengths: Excellent cultural information about the Makah Indians, strong character development, good suspense, good action.  I really enjoyed this story and there is such a need for good Native American literature that I'm extremely pleased to ahve this book. The book also has a downloadable curriculum packet developed by the good folks at Random House.

Weaknesses: This is not a weakness of the book, but unfortunately students in my district study Native Americans a third grade and for most of those students this book will not work for them.  Perhaps as a read-aloud it could work, but even still I think it would be better at a fifth grade level or up.

Second Fiddle, Rosanne Parry

Ooooh, I love a good mystery, and this one was a fantastic one! It was SO different from Rosanne Parry's Heart of a Shepherd, but I loved it just as much. It's set in Germany at the time the Berlin Wall came down, and although the main characters are girls, there's plenty for boys to love, too. For starters, a soldier gets thrown off a bridge and left to die! Then there's the sneaking off to Paris. And the four of them trying to escape a scary guy on a train. And on and on.

It is a great book that kept me up reading way past my bedtime for several nights in a row! I highly recommend this novel to all lovers of action, adventure and mystery. Additionally, there's a big musical component in this novel, as the girls are in a classical music trio, so if you like music you'd probably enjoy this story, too.