The Warriors
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
When twelve-year-old Jake Forrest's mother gets a job in a new city, everything changes. He has to move away from the Iroquois reservation he's lived on his entire life—away from his aunt and uncle, and away from the friends he plays lacrosse with. The lacrosse coach and players at his new school in Washington, D.C., believe that winning is everything, and they don't know anything about the ways of his people. As Jake struggles to find a place where he truly belongs, tragedy strikes and he must find out who he really is. Can he find courage to face the warrior within—the warrior who values peace and leads other to more noble pursuits than outscoring the opposition?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Opening with fast-paced sketches of a lacrosse game and punctuated by the reverent thoughts of a teenage Iroquois player, Bruchac's (Pocahontas, reviewed below) contemporary novel will draw in both sports enthusiasts and those with an interest in Native American culture. Jake Forrest, who has grown up on the "rez," leaves it to live with his widowed mother, a high-powered attorney. When he enters an exclusive boys' prep school, he learns that it has made room for him based on his lacrosse prowess; student life revolves around the game. Thanks to his gifts, Jake seems to gain acceptance easily. However, his teammates' and coach's well-meaning but ignorant remarks leave Jake isolated and increasingly aware of the enormous differences in their values. Only after the coach is seriously injured does Jake find a way to explain the spiritual dimensions of lacrosse and to embody the Iroquois ideal: "To be a true warrior meant you had to love peace and keep that love of peace in your heart." While the plot seems contrived to deliver the lesson, and while Jake, in all his perfection and purity, seems more paragon than a flesh-and-blood character, Bruchac offsets these drawbacks with the smoothness of the prose and the beauty of his evocation of Native American spirituality and wisdom traditions. Readers will want to believe in the story and in Jake. Ages 9-11.
