Worlds Apart - Softcover

Kathleen Karr is the author of many highly acclaimed works of historical fiction, including Fortune's Fool and Exiled: Memoirs of a Camel. Her book The Great Turkey Walk was named a Best Book of the Year by both School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. The Boxer was an ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and winner of the Golden Kite Award for Fiction, and The 7th Knot received an Agatha Award for Best Mystery. Other titles have been selected for ALA bibliographies and named ALA-ALSC Notable Children's Books. She is the parent of two grown children and lives in Washington, D.C.

Grade 4-7–This is the story of a cross-cultural friendship, the struggles faced by the English trying to make a life in the South Carolina colony in 1670, and the effects of colonization on Native Americans. Christopher West, the narrator, is a likable, open-minded teen who forms a close bond with a Sewee Indian. They learn a great deal from one another, and Asha-po teaches Christopher how to survive in his new harsh surroundings. Their relationship brings to mind Elizabeth George Speare's The Sign of the Beaver (Houghton, 1983). As this friendship develops, Christopher begins to wrestle in his own mind with the perceived injustice done by his people toward the Sewees. Conflicts with his father begin, but Chrisptoher's upbringing prevents disobedience. When Asha-po and his people help the English fight off an attack by the Spanish, and then by the hostile Westo, they are offered meager gifts as a thank you, with promises of more to come. When another ship arrives from England without further reward and with more settlers, the teens' relationship is severely strained. This thoughtful novel offers extensive information as well as a gripping story of friendship and adventure. Karr paints a clear picture of the problems endured by the colonists and their single-minded determination to survive. In an afterword, she explains how she intermingled real historical figures with fictional ones and what triggered the story's surprising ending.–Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.