Mother Earth, Father Sky
By Sue Harrison
3.5/5
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About this ebook
It’s 7056 BC, a time before history. On the first day that Chagak’s womanhood is acknowledged within her Aleut tribe, she unexpectedly finds herself betrothed to Seal Stalker, the most promising young hunter in the village. A bright future lies ahead of Chagak—but in one violent moment, she loses her entire way of life. Left with her infant brother, Pup, and only a birdskin parka for warmth, Chagak sets out across the icy waters on a quest for survival and revenge. Mother Earth, Father Sky is the first book of the Ivory Carver Trilogy, which also includes My Sister the Moon and Brother Wind.
Sue Harrison
Sue Harrison grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and graduated summa cum laude from Lake Superior State University with a bachelor of arts degree in English language and literature. At age twenty-seven, inspired by the forest that surrounded her home, and the outdoor survival skills she had learned from her father and her husband, Harrison began researching the people who understood best how to live in a harsh environment: the North American native peoples. She studied six Native American languages and completed extensive research on culture, geography, archaeology, and anthropology during the nine years she spent writing her first novel, Mother Earth, Father Sky. An international bestseller and selected by the American Library Association as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 1991, Mother Earth, Father Sky is the first novel in Harrison’s critically acclaimed Ivory Carver Trilogy, which includes My Sister the Moon and Brother Wind. She is the author of the Storyteller Trilogy, also set in prehistoric North America. Her novels have been translated into thirteen languages and published in more than twenty countries. Harrison lives with her family in Michigan.
Read more from Sue Harrison
The Midwife's Touch Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Titles in the series (4)
Brother Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mother Earth, Father Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivory Carver Trilogy: Mother Earth Father Sky, My Sister the Moon, and Brother Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Mother Earth, Father Sky
126 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I first read this book in 6th grade (looong time ago) and there’s something about it that stuck with me. I learned a lot about prehistoric Aleutian life and about a culture that I have zero connection with, but still find fascinating. It’s a smooth read that is easy to get through and difficult to put down.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mother Earth Father Sky takes place in a time long ago but as you read it you wonder if people have changed all that much. It is centered in the area around the Aleutian Islands and involves a series of tribes living mostly in peace as they hunt seals, otters, and whales to survive and trade. The novel centers around a young woman, Chagak who was off gathering grasses and enjoying a peaceful, beautiful day when horror comes to her tribe. The balance of the story is how Chagak deals with the changes to her life and faces the new life she is forced to create for herself as she moves forward.I have to say that I had a hard time putting this book down. It wasn't overly complex or written with a convoluted, suspense type plot. It was more the characters that drew me in and made me not want to leave their world. Chagak was strong; she had been deeply hurt by more than one incident and yet she kept striving forward. The Ivory Carver, whom she meets as she tries to escape the horror wrought upon her village was a fascinating man with much to share and he was a perfect balance to Chagak's force.The research Ms. Harrison did was evident in the story and not in a lecturing way; more in the easy and smooth way that the information was woven into the details of the day to day lives of the people living at the time. I found myself more than once lost in time, thoroughly enjoying my visit to prehistoric "Alaska." I would love to go back and continue Chagak's story. It's a story that certainly enthralled me and I'm sure the two other books in the trilogy would be just as fascinating.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mother Earth Father Sky takes place in a time long ago but as you read it you wonder if people have changed all that much. It is centered in the area around the Aleutian Islands and involves a series of tribes living mostly in peace as they hunt seals, otters, and whales to survive and trade. The novel centers around a young woman, Chagak who was off gathering grasses and enjoying a peaceful, beautiful day when horror comes to her tribe. The balance of the story is how Chagak deals with the changes to her life and faces the new life she is forced to create for herself as she moves forward.I have to say that I had a hard time putting this book down. It wasn't overly complex or written with a convoluted, suspense type plot. It was more the characters that drew me in and made me not want to leave their world. Chagak was strong; she had been deeply hurt by more than one incident and yet she kept striving forward. The Ivory Carver, whom she meets as she tries to escape the horror wrought upon her village was a fascinating man with much to share and he was a perfect balance to Chagak's force.The research Ms. Harrison did was evident in the story and not in a lecturing way; more in the easy and smooth way that the information was woven into the details of the day to day lives of the people living at the time. I found myself more than once lost in time, thoroughly enjoying my visit to prehistoric "Alaska." I would love to go back and continue Chagak's story. It's a story that certainly enthralled me and I'm sure the two other books in the trilogy would be just as fascinating.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting novel about First People of the Aleutian Islands, ca. 7000 BC. Harrison creates a believable culture with nicely drawn characterizations.After witnessing a massacre that destroys her village, a young woman struggles to reach her mother's family on another island, but the journey takes a path she didn't expect.Unfortunately, the cover illustrator apparently didn't read the manuscript. It shows a young woman of First People stock, but her clothing and her boat appear to be of the style of 17th-century Great Lakes tribes, and the seal swimming alongside it has nothing to do with the story. Nor does the male figure standing on the shore, who appears to be of European stock and is dressed in 17th-century garb.Ignore the cover. Enjoy the book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I read this book a long time ago and decided to visit again. I wasn't disappointed, it is a fun trip into an ancient world and culture both alike and unlike ours in many ways.
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- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mother Earth Father Sky is the first book in a trilogy that takes us into the lives of an ancient North American people in Alaska. If that sounds boring, don’t be fooled.To be honest, I hardly know what to say about this book. At the writing of this review, having just finished reading it I’m barely back to the here-and-now, and the story of Chagak is still fresh in my mind. To say that Sue Harrison wrote an amazing prehistoric fiction novel scarcely describes what she masterfully accomplished. Over the course of nine years she studied, researched and lived in her creative mind the tale of a long ago culture in Alaska, focusing on one Aleut woman’s struggle to survive and overcome a very harsh reality. That woman, Chagak, lived in a primitive time consisting of warrior tribes, legends, crude customs, myths, and magic, but also love, family ties, and community. The author made it all come alive through the power of the written word in a very easy-to-read style. I was held from the beginning of this book to its last page – left wanting to read more about the people I had come to know.This book is not newly released but was published in 1990. I was fortunate to be gifted a copy and I’m so glad to have received it. If you come across Mother Earth Father Sky and you are not offended by the cruel reality and graphic descriptions of the belief system of prehistoric man, then do grab the opportunity to read this book.