Wabi: A Hero's Tale

Overview

Wabi was born an owl--a great horned owl who grew to become such a strong, confident creature that he was afraid of nothing. But now he is afraid. He fears that he might never win the heart of the girl he loves. Somehow, despite his own intentions, he has fallen in love with a girl--a beautiful, headstrong human girl. And so he begins the adventure of his life. He shape-shifts into human form in order to be with her. But before he can win her love, he must face an even greater challenge in a land he comes to think of as the Valley of Monsters.

Editorial Reviews

Bruchac's (Skeleton Man) storytelling skills are on full display in this tale introducing an owlet narrator. Wabi's adventure begins almost immediately, when his brother pushes him out of the nest and into the path of a hungry fox. Wabi's great-grandmother, whom he's never met, comes to his rescue and takes him under her wing. She patiently answers the insatiably curious owl's questions, at times with stories. She tells him that the two of them share a "special gift": they communicate with each other in human language and are able to understand the speech of not only owls and people, but "other creatures toooo." Wabi becomes fascinated by the Native American residents of a nearby village, especially the children, whom he safeguards. Eventually, Wabi realizes that he is smitten with one of the teenagers, the sharp-tongued, headstrong Dojihla, yet recognizes the futility of his love. Guided by his great-grandmother, who confides a family secret, the love-struck owl attempts to win Dojihla's affection. The action continues when Wabi-accompanied by his trusty wolf companion, adopted while he was a cub-begins a harrowing quest to rescue the enslaved members of the wolf's pack and to save Dojihla's people from a deranged bear. Bruchac's tale agilely balances suspense, humor and romance. Ages 12-16. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac lives with his wife, Carol, in the Adirondack mountain foothills town of Greenfield Center, New York, in the same house where his maternal grandparents raised him. Much of his writing draws on that land and his Abenaki ancestry. Although his American Indian heritage is only one part of an ethnic background that includes Slovak and English blood, those Native roots are the ones by which he has been most nourished. He, his younger sister Margaret, and his two grown sons, James and Jesse, continue to work extensively in projects involving the preservation of Abenaki culture, language and traditional Native skills, including performing traditional and contemporary Abenaki music with the Dawnland Singers. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Union Institute of Ohio. His work as a educator includes eight years of directing a college program for Skidmore College inside a maximum security prison. With his wife, Carol, he is the founder and Co-Director of the Greenfield Review Literary Center and The Greenfield Review Press. He has edited a number of highly praised anthologies of contemporary poetry and fiction, including Songs from this Earth on Turtle's Back, Breaking Silence (winner of an American Book Award) and Returning the Gift. His poems, articles and stories have appeared in over 500 publications, from American Poetry Review, Cricket and Aboriginal Voices to National Geographic, Parabola and Smithsonian Magazine. He has authored more than 70 books for adults and children, including The First Strawberries, Keepers of the Earth (co-authored with Michael Caduto), Tell Me a Tale, When the Chenoo Howls (co-authored with his son, James), his autobiography Bowman's Store and such novels as Dawn Land, The Waters Between, Arrow Over the Door and The Heart of a Chief. Forthcoming titles include Squanto's Journey (Harcourt), a picture book, Sacajawea (Harcourt), an historical novel, Crazy Horse's Vision (Lee & Low), a picture book, and Pushing Up The Sky (Dial), a collection of plays for children. His honors include a Rockefeller Humanities fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship for Poetry, the Cherokee Nation Prose Award, the Knickerbocker Award, the Hope S. Dean Award for Notable Achievement in Children's Literature and both the 1998 Writer of the Year Award and the 1998 Storyteller of the Year Award from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. In 1999, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. As a professional teller of the traditional tales of the Adirondacks and the Native peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Joe Bruchac has performed widely in Europe and throughout the United States from Florida to Hawaii and has been featured at such events as the British Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee. He has been a storyteller-in-residence for Native American organizations and schools throughout the continent, including the Institute of Alaska Native Arts and the Onondaga Nation School. He discusses Native culture and his books and does storytelling programs at dozens of elementary and secondary schools each year as a visiting author.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Puffin

Filesize

753.24 KB

Number of Pages

208

eBook ISBN

9781440682599

Awards

• Maine Student Book Award