Reader's Response 26

The Windwalker                               Completed                                Read for 3Hrs.
                                  
              The Windwalker is about an old man who awakens to find that, due to his extremely old age, he has been tied to a scaffold ( a raised platform on which Native Americans place their dead.) despite being on the scaffold, he is still very much alive. Winter has set in and he is at the mercy of the snow and wind. While he is up on the scaffold he repeatedly asks "Grandfather", who is the name of the Native American's god, why he has not gone west to the spirit world. His bones are brittle, his joints are creaky, his skin is wrinkled and sagging, and he is blind, so he doesn't see why Grandfather has not let him die. He contemplates, and then, being a very pious man, he reaches the conclusion that he has more left to do in life. He struggles and eventually breaks free.

             After breaking free he wanders around, falling occasionally, until he hears wolfs. The wolfs eventually catch up to him, but he falls down a hole, and finds, to his dismay, a hibernating grizzly bear. Grandfather gives him courage and he slays the beats, using it for warmth. Now that he became warm, he sets off to find people. he eventually finds his family, but the trails are far from over. At the end of the book and throughout, he learns valuable lessons.

           This book is a good read because it is well written, with poems about life and it's lessons, and gives wonderful insight into another culture that, though studied, is not given a lot of detail. After reading this book you just feel good, like what you read was a wholesome book. It teaches great lessons and has an exciting plot. This book is written by the same author as Charlie's Monument, one of my favorite books. The Windwalker has the same sweet heart throbbing story.

           I highly suggest this book 5 stars.