Customer Reviews

11,000 Years Lost

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Texas history, time travel, and lessons on family trees blend in the engrossing novel by Penni R. Griffin 11,000 Years Lost. Pre-teen Ester discovers an 11,000 year old spearhead once used by mammoth hunters during an archaeological dig: an artifact when opens a time portal and lands Esther in Ice Age Texas. Adopted by a group of mammoth hunters, she must learn to survive in a very different society and find a way home simultaneous in a gripping story testing her survival skills. Two of Peni R. Griffin's previous books have been nominees for Edgar Awards and 11,000 Years Lost joins their gripping action.

(Written by 14yo.)
I liked this book because it seems so real, it's like you're there. The three characters I liked most were Ester, Ahrva, and Tekinit. They were my friends while I was reading the book. There are about 40 people in the story. I liked how the author made Ester walk through the door to the past and come upon two little girls named Ahrva and Tekinit. I also liked how the author wrote about the family moving from one place to another, and the things they did like hunt and gather food. The author described their ceremonies, how they spoke to one another, and their silly words they tried to pronounce. The things I didn't like were the deaths of four people and how the family cut themselves because they were grieving. I would have liked more suspense in the story like a scimitar cat coming into the camp site or something like that. I think there were too many hard names to pronounce. I really enjoyed this book! I wish there really was a door that made you go back in time! I would recommend that you read this book!

The book, 11,000 Years Lost, is about a girl,
Esther, who accidentally travels to 11,000 years
ago! She was helping some archeologists with a
site near her home when she walks through a
shimmering patch of air and arrives in the past.
She was taken in by a family group who was near
the place she appeared and she was thought of as
a star-child. She started to understand their
language and rituals after a while. All of the
hunters thought that she was good luck, even
though she knew it was not true. She goes through
countless hardships and joys on her way to try to
get home. To learn more, read the book.
I liked this book. It was not exactly a page
turner, but it certainly was not boring. It
taught me a little about ancient history and what
it would have possibly been like 11,000 years
ago, too. The ending was perfect. It kept me
wondering what had happened to her family group,
but some books should keep you wondering. This
book was not the best book I have ever read, but
it was pretty good. If you like historical
fiction or drama, you would definitely like this
book. FROM FLAMINGNET.COM
For more preteen and young adult book reviews visit www.flamingnet.com

I just finished reading this book. The story takes place in modern and ice age times. Esther, who is from the modern finds an clovis point and from shortly after that point she is pulled back in time to the ice age. When she arrives, she must learn to survive and survive she does thanks to her clovis family that takes her in and teaches her. She will learn to hunt all types of animal and pick the right plants, make clothes, and tools. She will do this all, yet she will come to love her family that has taken her in to become part of them.

I found this to be a great read. I would recommend it to anyone of any age. Have a great read!!

Esther is an 11 year-old girl from a middle class Hispanic-American family living in Texas. She loves archeology and jumps at a chance to work on an archeological dig near her home. She gets more than she bargains for when she unwittingly steps through a time portal and is transported back to the Stone Age. She is adopted by a nomadic tribe and must exert all of her energy and social skills to survive.

Her adopted Stone Age tribe has all kinds of modern day problems and values. They also speak a charming multi-cultural language created by the author. This book would have been okay if the author had made it shorter and not appointed herself the politically correct gate keeper of recent ancient archeological finds.

The author uses the Kennewick Man as her example (For those unfamiliar do an Internet search). She informs her readers that all that business about the Kennewick Man being of European descent is a mere rumor. She fails to mention the scientists' clay rendition or the fact that other 9,000 to 11,000 year old skeletons with Caucasian features have been found in the Western United States. In order to make a somewhat informed decision one would need to know how many such ancient skeletons have been found in the Western United States and how many of them were Caucasian, or to be politically correct "Caucasian like."

The author does not broach this subject. Instead she tells her readers to keep an open mind and consider that the first Americans could have had black skin and bright red hair. Humph, I've traveled to five continents and never seen this combination. Using this line of reasoning they could have had purple or green skin. The bottom line is that anthropologists, scientists who study ethnicity, determined, from their skeletons, that they had Caucasian like features. This research is incomplete because the bones were confiscated due to the NAGPRA Act. Scientists were also quick to point out, perhaps under pressure, that they bear no resemblance to modern humans. If scientists win the court fight to study these bones DNA testing can eventually determine the origins of these ancient Americans regardless of whether it offends anyone's preconceived notions.

Perhaps it would mollify the author and her PC supporters to know that the oldest skeleton found in the Americas, so far, was determined to be of African origin. She was found in a cave in Eastern Brazil and given the name Luzia. Please keep in mind that even magazines like Time are not immune PC pressure. Recently Time did a retraction in which they featured on the cover a very corny computer generated hybrid cave man that looked sort of Asian and Hispanic.

One website that I have found helpful is www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/luzia.html but I encourage readers to do their own research and make their own decisions. Look up "Spirit Cave Man," "Buhl Woman," "Kennewick Man," "Luzia," and "Solutrean culture and tools." Good luck with your search!

I dig for Paleo-Indian remains (legally) in New Hampshire and I have dug in the Texas area where the story is set. Except that I would like to hear more about Esther's family and what happened to her after her return, I really liked this book. Esther is a tough, likeable, believeable person (and the snide tone of first professional review above is entirely unneccessary). Although it has something in common with Peter Dickinson's The Kin, it is much more accessible for younger readers. I don't know whether anything can give an accurate picture of prehistoric life, but the characters and details ring true and I hope Ms. Griffin writes more.