Shinoni and Keena are our guides to a prehistoric, wide-open world of grass, ice, rock, and wolves. These two girls from different tribes become SISTERS OF THE WOLF. Keena is one of the Neanderthals, who call themselves the Krag. She is training to be a medicine woman when she is obliged to leave her family. A Cro-Magnon girl, Shinoni, becomes her unlikely ally.

The Kula people, the name for Cro-Magnons, are much closer to us and are our ancestors. The different clans moved uneasily around each other’s territories and blamed each other for overhunting the game. The adventure is told in present tense and concepts are not too complicated, because there is plenty to learn. To join the two contrary, distrustful, brave girls as they learn to work together and survive, is to feel the bitter sting of ice in the wind, hear the crackle of the fire, smell the stench of a wolverine.  Perils come thick and fast as Keena and Shinoni escape a brutal hunter, Haken, who dominates everyone and make for the mountains. They are befriended by a she-wolf called Tewa who takes on the role of spirit guide.

I’ve read several prehistory adventures, many of which included riding a horse if set in Eurasia… but nobody’s been riding a mammoth until I read this one!  We learn plenty about the mammals and other creatures of the Ice Age steppe. We also experience the prehistoric cave paintings and explore what they might mean.

If adult readers have enjoyed the earlier series such as Jean M. Auel’s CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR and W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear’s books like PEOPLE OF THE WOLF, they will be interested to introduce younger readers to prehistory through SISTERS OF THE WOLF. Patricia Miller-Schroeder has worked from the most up-to-date archaeology and created a book about two thirteen-year-old girls. Middle-grade to teenage readers should be fine with this read, provided they are okay with hunting for food and violent episodes. The lessons are really practical ones about survival, and not just about getting dry after a soaking… working together and sharing skills comes across as a major factor. There’s also a spirit of getting on with life and making the best use of the day… one girl says she should have been preparing to go on a spirit journey, and the other says that maybe this is her spirit journey. SISTERS OF THE WOLF is a fine accomplishment, highly educational, and the kind of adventure that was only written about boys in the past.  Be strong, sisters!