From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-A complex fantasy that has its inspiration in the Cherokee culture of western North Carolina. When Adanta's sick father goes on a quest to find a healing lake, a visitor, the Lean One, comes to their home and lures her mother away, where she may have fallen prey to Raven Mockers, who steal a victim's heart and eat it. Alone, Adanta sets out to try to find her parents, journeying from her cottage to Adantis, a secret home of the Hidden People, who are a mixture of Irish, Scots, and Cherokee. The book follows Adanta through trials as she meets a variety of characters who have special powers of transformation from one form to another as well as people living in the depths of the Great Smoky Mountains where cultures blend and the lines of reality and fantasy blur. Among them is Pony Boy, who travels with Adanta some of the time; her grandmother; and families she meets in the hidden world of Adantis. There are a lot of good, exciting characters and events-people being stolen, men changed into other creatures-but the intricate plot has many side steps that can be difficult to keep straight, and it will take an excellent reader to keep them all sorted out. In the end, the story cannot quite stand up to the weight of all the characters and all that is going on in it.
Jane G. Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Jane G. Connor, South Carolina State Library, Columbia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, this fantasy draws on Cherokee legends and the culture of the region's European settlers. After young Adanta's father falls ill, he leaves their solitary cottage to search for Atagahi, the secret, sacred healing lake of legend. Seven weeks later, Adanta's mother is enchanted and lured into the Smoky Mountain home of the Adantans, the Hidden People of mixed Irish, Scots, and Cherokee ancestry. Adanta's quest to save her parents leads her deep into the mountains, where she finds a land she had known only through her father's tales. She encounters shape-shifting witches and wizards called raven mockers, fairylike little people, and the powerful Immortals as well as a number of memorable human characters. In a detailed glossary, Youmans explains unfamiliar terms and concepts. Genre fans who have lamented the lack of high fantasy with a truly American setting will welcome this original, imaginative story with its well-researched background. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Genre fans who have lamented the lack of high fantasy with a truly American setting will welcome this original, imaginative story with its well-researched background." --Booklist
"Adanta fights for her parents' lives in this ambitious fantasy. . .The fusion of Appalachian and Cherokee cultures is compelling." --Kirkus Reviews
"A good addition to younger teen fiction collections." -- VOYA
"Adanta fights for her parents' lives in this ambitious fantasy. . .The fusion of Appalachian and Cherokee cultures is compelling." --Kirkus Reviews
"A good addition to younger teen fiction collections." -- VOYA
Book Description
A chilling fantasy based on Cherokee myth
It’s been weeks since Adanta’s sick father left on a quest to find the healing lake mentioned in the lore of the Cherokee. Since then a visitor has arrived, a man Adanta doesn't like – James, or, as she's styled him, the Lean One. One day, after witnessing him make a frightening incantation, Adanta finds that her mother has fallen under the Lean One's spell, and she is lured away from the cottage. Left alone in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains, Adanta has no choice but to venture forth into the wilderness, in the hope of finding both her parents. To accomplish this, she must journey to Adantis, the secret home of the Hidden People deep in the mountains.
On her quest, Adanta finds many friends, but she also encounters untold dangers, including the threat of the Raven Mockers – humans who take the form of birds and steal the remaining life from those who are hurt or ill. To protect herself, and potentially save her mother and be reunited with her father, will require all the strength and courage she can muster.
It’s been weeks since Adanta’s sick father left on a quest to find the healing lake mentioned in the lore of the Cherokee. Since then a visitor has arrived, a man Adanta doesn't like – James, or, as she's styled him, the Lean One. One day, after witnessing him make a frightening incantation, Adanta finds that her mother has fallen under the Lean One's spell, and she is lured away from the cottage. Left alone in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains, Adanta has no choice but to venture forth into the wilderness, in the hope of finding both her parents. To accomplish this, she must journey to Adantis, the secret home of the Hidden People deep in the mountains.
On her quest, Adanta finds many friends, but she also encounters untold dangers, including the threat of the Raven Mockers – humans who take the form of birds and steal the remaining life from those who are hurt or ill. To protect herself, and potentially save her mother and be reunited with her father, will require all the strength and courage she can muster.
About the Author
Marly Youmans is the author of three previous novels for adults. She lives in Cooperstown, New York.
