Dear Rabid Librarian:
There was a book I read when I was younger, a children's book that I seem to recall was green and may have won a children's book award. There was a map inside, and illustrations, but it was a chapter book. It involved a girl who shrinks down to the size of ants. There are some ants that smell like cinnamon, and some that smell like vanilla. I seem to think there was also a beetle, or perhaps a dragonfly (the dragonfly is iffy). The ants were black and red. The girl has to find an opal that figures in the plot. I never got to finish the book. Can you find it for me?--Desperately Seeking This Bit from My Childhood
Dear Desperately Seeking:
These are the questions that you'd think would be easy to answer (because of all those nice keywords) but in fact can thwart the librarian. However, in this case, I think the book to which you are referring is:
Knee-Deep in Thunder by Sheila Moon
There are two related books, Hunt Down the Prize and Deepest Roots. A girl named Maris travels to the Great Land where she rides on a dog-sized beetle in an underground land in search of a mysterious stone. The books incorporate Navajo mythology. It's never stated that she's shrunk but the insects are in proportion to her size. She befriends a red ant and also encounters a catepillar and a tutelary spirit called the Mantid. In the later books she returns to the Great Land with a companion, Zeke, and her dog. Does this sound right?
By the way, after I found this, I came across a wonderful site with a 'Stump the Bookseller' form for just such questions, and the solutions. (I'll keep that handy for future reference.) Also, another great place to look is the Novelist database, if you have access to it through your local public library (ours has it, for example, and if you put in your library card # and PIN, you can search as if you were at the library).
It sounds like an enchanting series, akin to one of my favourites, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising, in terms of weaving mythology into the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment