Monday, April 27, 2020

Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay - OPTIONAL

Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay, 255 pages. David Fickling Books (Scholastic Inc.), 2019. $19.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS – OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Ten harvests have passed since Samkad was born, and he is now old enough to have the Cut and become a man. Samkad and his father make an offering at the Tree of Bones the next morning, but something is wrong. When they return to the village, the ancients declare that Samkad cannot become a man until his soul brother Kinyo is brought back to his home, a task that brings more turmoil to their lives than they ever could have expected.

Based on true events and the native people in the Cordillera region of the Philippines, Gourlay tells a story to bring the people and places of her homeland into more books. This is a good book to showcase a culture that most Americans are unfamiliar with and to see that we aren’t always the heroes. Though there are many tragedies in Samkad’s story, Gourlay ends the story with a hope that can fill all readers on difficult journeys.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

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