Joseph Bruchac is one of the foremost Native writers working in the United States today. The protagonist of this novel is Uwohali, the thirteen-year-old son of Sequoyah. They are living in the Wills Valley of Alabama in the shadow of Lookout Mountain, and Uwohali, like others who encounter Sequoyah at this time, wonders what in the world his father is doing! The answer that we know in hindsight is creating a written language for the spoken Cherokee language.
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House, 2016. 235 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.