God child Pretty Pearl, younger sister of John de Conquer and John Henry, comes down from Mount Kenya to try life as a human child in the Post-Civil War American South. After a long journey through the South with a cast of characters from American and African folklore, as well as with Mother Pearl, the adult aspect of the god child herself, she comes upon the Inside Folks, a clandestine self-supporting community of Free Blacks, linked to the outside world only through their connections with Cherokee and Shawnee Amerinds. Drawn to the humans and their "winning ways," Pearl must eventually choose between her own immortal power and her newly emerging identity within a struggling mortal community. Hamilton skillfully weaves myth, legend and history into a complex pattern of hopes and dream to create a truly American odyssey. (Age 12 and older)