In the third volume featuring Omakayas, the Ojibwe girl is twelve years old and embarking on a journey with her family in the year 1852. Forced from their home on what is now known as Madeline Island, they travel by canoe along the shore of Lake Superior through the rivers of Northern Minnesota in search of a new home. In an exciting opening chapter, Omakayas and her brother Pinch are swept away by the rapids and assumed dead. Unable to resist the opportunity to make mischief, the pair walk into a grieving camp masquerading as their own spirits, triggering a stunned response which quickly turns to a mixture of relief and reproach. During the course of the year Omakayas experiences personal and physical maturity, and is recognized as a woman. As in her earlier books in the series , The Birchbark House (Hyperion, 1999), and The Game of Silence (HarperCollins, 2005), Ms. Erdrich crafts a seamless story of family, community, and place, encompassing humor, tragedy, and everyday life, all viewed through a child’s experience. (Ages 8–12)