Sisters of the Wolf
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Sisters of the Wolf
Later that night in a small cave behind a fallen boulder, Shinoni, Keena, and Tewa sit by a roaring fire. They’ve thanked the long neck for giving itself to feed them, and the swan now roasts on a spit over coals at the fire’s edge. Beside the fire is a pile of sleek white plumes, and both Shinoni and Keena wear several long feathers tucked into their hair.
Shinoni holds up a thin hollow bone from the swan’s wing and examines it. “I’d like to make a flute from this. My mother used to play the swan-bone flute.” Her heart aches when she realizes she’s speaking of her mother in the past. “I remember how nice it sounded when I was a small one. It made me feel safe because my mother was close.”
“I know how to make a flute,” Keena says. “The Kula hunter Sabra, who stayed with my family, made a flute for my father out of a piece of cave bear bone.”
“A bear bone isn’t like a swan bone,” Shinoni says.
“No, it’s heavier, but they both make music,” Keena says. “My father loves that flute and he plays it all the time. He lets me play it, too.”
“Your father must care for you a lot to let you play his flute,” Shinoni says.
“I can make you a flute out of the swan bone, if you’d like,” Keena offers.
“I’d like that very much.” Shinoni tingles with pleasure. She looks at Keens’s tattered footwear with its worn-out laces. “I could sew your foot covers together so your feet stay warmer and dry.”
“I’d like that, too.” Keena beams.
Then they both settle down by the fire to work on their separate tasks. Tewa lies between them, stretched out on her back. She whines and growls softly in her sleep, perhaps dreaming of the day’s adventures.”
Shinoni and Keena are two 13-year-old girls living in the bleak and savage world of the Ice Age. They are very different people; Shinoni is the daughter of a Cro-Magnon shaman, and this often makes her feel very connected to the spirit world. Her grandmother is a healer, and Shinoni is also learning what plants to pick and how to use them. Keena’s family is a band of Neanderthals, and readers’ first encounter Keena as she deals with the attack of a mountain lion. What brings the girls together is a common enemy, Haken. He tears the girls away from their families, and the plot of the novel centers on their escape from Haken and their need to work together and outwit him as he pursues them. They eventually change from being complete strangers to having a sister-like bond.
The girls are both strong characters, and each brings her own customs and knowledge to the novel. They are strong, brave, resilient and self-reliant, and, gradually, trust forms between them. While their human enemy is always in pursuit of them, the girls also have to fight harsh Ice Age surroundings and a variety of wild animals. If they are going to survive, they must work together as a team and accept each other’s talents and ideas rather than feeling they are always in competition.
Sisters of the Wolf is filled with a cast of strong female characters which includes not only the girls but various adults and healers as well as Tewa their wolf/spirit guide. Thus, one of the main themes of the book is that, with perseverance and patience, almost any obstacle can be overcome and gender has little to do with these necessary personality traits.
Patricia Miller-Schroeder is a biological anthropologist who is keen to share her enthusiasm for prehistory and prehistoric people. The historical setting of the Ice Age is a great unknown for most readers, but the author’s careful research gives her audience a clear sense of the dangers and hardships in this harsh environment. Along with evading both their human and natural enemies, the girls must daily face the necessities of finding food and shelter if they are to survive.
Sisters of the Wolf is filled to the brim with adventures as the girls seem to face a new problem on every page. The pace of the action is very fast, and readers are pulled along by the plot with perhaps less chance to relate to the characters. The action feels like a constant bombardment of events and, for me, this ironically made the book less interesting. Perhaps a slightly longer book could have included more character development and more details about the setting of the Ice Age. The language is straightforward, and the chapters are fairly short, giving the impression that the book is aimed at readers at the lower end of the young adult age spectrum.
Sisters of the Wolf contains action and adventure, a unique historical setting and a story about strong women and girls, and so there is something to suit every taste in the intermediate age group.
Ann Ketcheson, a retired high school teacher-librarian and classroom teacher of English and French, lives in Ottawa, Ontario.