The Curse of the Raven Mocker

By Marly Youmans

Book Overview

A chilling fantasy based on Cherokee myth It's been weeks since Adanta's sick father left on a quest to find the healing lake mentioned in the lore of the Cherokee. Since then a visitor has arrived, a man Adanta doesn't like James, or, as she's styled him, the Lean One. One day, after witnessing him make a frightening incantation, Adanta finds that her mother has fallen under the Lean One's spell, and she is lured away from the cottage. Left alone in a remote area of the Smoky Mountains, Adanta has no choice but to venture forth into the wilderness, in the hope of finding both her parents. To accomplish this, she must journey to Adantis, the secret home of the Hidden People deep in the mountains. On her quest, Adanta finds many friends, but she also encounters untold dangers, including the threat of the Raven Mockers humans who take the form of birds and steal the remaining life from those who are hurt or ill. To protect herself, and potentially save her mother and be reunited with her father, will require all the strength and courage she can muster.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374316678
• ISBN13: 9780374316679
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 5.5"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 9

Customer Reviews

Americans have fantasies too

When one thinks of the fantasy genre one usually pictures the well worn paths of dragons, sword and sorcerer, medievil speak, etc. There is an overwhelming sense of Tolkien wannabe (See Eragon). As an American it is refreshing to read a fantasy not limited by that mind set. The story line is a classic child on a quest, but the language, imagination, landscape, imagery, and beauty of thought behind Raven Mocker makes it an outstanding read.

A fantasy with actual imagination

Mary Youmans has created a beautiful fantasy world with a distinct american voice. Not a thee or thou in the whole book! The fast moving plot, palpable excitement and frightening (but bravely meet) situations faced by our heroine Adanta all make for a fun, thrilling book that is written in a manner far better than is typical.

When a Curse is a Blessing

Marly Youman's latest book, The Curse of the Raven Mocker is a perfect introduction to literary writing for the younger reader, so finely worked and that adult readers can fall through the page, forget reading, and watch the story. As in her Catherwood, Ms Youman's descriptions of landscapes and local color is like a mother describing her child or Shackleton describing the cold. The dearness of the values of family love, acceptance of grave personal purpose, and the courage to muster over again against what is terrible, shown especially in the young as she weaves her story, gives today's readers more than a book to bequeath to our children. This is a minor masterpiece of a handbook on how to live with open-eyed love in an often incomprehensibly dangerous world. Even with all of that, much of value of The Curse of the Raven Mocker is a born teacher's easy stimulation of a reader's curiosity to need more of the rich background the author respectfully serves. There is plenty of convenient, graspable and interesting material related to Cherokee culture just waiting to be appreciated by Ms Youman's post-Mocker readers.