This book was chosen as the "One Read" for the city in which I live so I decided to give it a try for the summer reading list at the high school. I was completely pulled in! It is weird because I don't like books about nature as a rule and I REALLY don't like books about animals (except Princess Donut in Dungeon Crawler Carl). There was something about this beautiful post-apocalyptic father/daughter survival story that just hit me hard.
The father and the girl live off the land. The mother died when the girl was too young to remember her, not quite in childbirth, but shortly thereafter. The father has been teaching the girl all the things she needs to survive. Every year he gives her a gift that will help her with a new skill and by the time she is 11, she is adept at survival.
And this is a good thing because when they go to the ocean to get salt, they are separated and she has to make her way in the world alone. Alone except for the creatures of the forest, including the bear.
The story was inspired by the area around Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire - a mountain climbed by many a car from my area of the country - and the setting is vivid. The girl is focused on staying alive and it is interesting that because of that, her personality is practically nonexistent other than her cleverness and tenacity. I cared deeply about her in spite of the fact that her inner life was so fixated.
This book is not at all something I would ever have picked up on my own, but I am so glad I did. And I did put it on the high school summer reading list. It is so easy to booktalk - I just reference HATCHET by Gary Paulson and they are all on board!
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