Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper

From Booklist: *Starred Review* Upon return from his three-month test of solitude, young Little Hawk of the Pokanoket tribe finds his village devastated by disease, and all but his grandmother are dead. The two move to another village, where they are adopted and become part of the community, and much of this novel focuses on their quiet life there until something unspeakable happens. Then the focus shifts to 10-year-old John Wakeley, and the book becomes more clearly a historical fantasy that links the lives of Little Hawk and John in a mysterious way. Set in the seventeenth century, Cooper’s wonderful novel is unsparing in its treatment of the bigoted attitudes of many of the English settlers toward the Pokanoket people, and of the censorious nature of the settlers’ religion. The historical figure Roger Williams, a character in the novel, says sadly, “They have escaped repression in order to repress others.” The novel’s dramatic tension resides in the fact that John grows up to be a friend to the native people and, like Williams, a Separatist, believing that people should be free to worship as they will, a belief for which he will be flogged. Cooper has written a richly plotted, lyrical, and near-epic novel filled with wonderfully realized and sympathetic characters. In sum, this is simply an unforgettable reading experience. Grades 6-10. --Michael Cart