Medicine Walk [Library Binding]

Ardath Mayhar (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

After his father's heart attack and the resulting crash of their small plane, Burr must travel alone through forty miles of summer desert with little food and water.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8 After their plane crashes in the Arizona desert and his father dies, 12-year-old Burr Henderson treks through the desert with little food or water to find help. Readers are taken along on Burr's walk as he learns not to fight nature but to listen to the animals, the wind and the land, as he was taught by an Apache foreman on his father's ranch. He faces snakes, hunger, thirst, perilous terrain and a cougar along his way. The Apache whom Burr eventually stumbles upon explains that the journey has been his Medicine Walk, the Apache rite of adolescence. The quick pace, conversational style, popular theme and short chapters will make this a good choice for reluctant readers, as well as those looking for non-demanding survival stories. Cindy Dobrez, Oak Lawn Public Library, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Library Binding: 83 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (September 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689311354
• ISBN-13: 978-0689311352
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,763,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Hatchet" Goes West!, April 20, 2001

By 

"canis-rufus" (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medicine Walk (Library Binding)

If you enjoy Gary Paulson's survival tales in "Hatchet" (as well as his two sequels to the same book) then you will certainly enjoy this book. It shares many of the same themes of adolescent survival tales. The hero is separated from any adult guidance by a quirky twist of fate and soon realizes that his survival depends on all the upbringing he has been exposed to so far. The similarities between the Paulson trilogy and this book are many. Both main characters are adolescent boys, traveling by air in small planes to meet other family members. Both pilots die of heart attacks and the boy in each story must survive a terrifying landing after flying off course for hours. Both characters must dig deep inside themselves to overcome fear, terror and harsh elements. The biggest difference, though, is in Hatchet, Brian depends on memories from his school teachers to stay alive, while Burr, in Medicine Walk, relys on the teachings of Nachito, a Navajo foreman from the ranch where Burr lives. Medicine Walk is not a long book, and can easily be read in a few hours. It's a great story to illustrate self-reliance and survival. It's also a great book to share after or before the Hatchet stories, because it lends itself well to comparison and constrasting (that's for you teachers out there:-)

I wish it were still in print, as I have given away the four copies I use to own, to former students who got hooked on reading after enjoying this book!

5.0 out of 5 stars Do Or Die, July 27, 2006

By 

Bill Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medicine Walk (Library Binding)

Medicine Walk (1985) is a Young Adult novel about survival. Dwight Henderson took time off from his practice to fly with his son Burr to a family gathering in Albuquerque. Since they had plenty of time, Dwight gave in to Burr's perennial request and deviated from his flight plan a bit to overfly the Apache Reservation.

Then Dwight had a heart attack and set the Cessna down on sand within a gully. After the plane came to a halt, Burr discovered that the landing had been his father's last effort. When he checked Dwight's pulse, there was not even a flutter.

Burr wanted to stay with the plane, but it was hidden by the rocks and trees and the radio was inoperable. He couldn't remove his father's body from the plane and the surrounding sand wouldn't have kept the scavengers from finding it. So he sealed the doors as best he could and prepared to walk out.

This novel compares Burr's situation with the traditional medicine walk of an Apache boy. He had only a limited supply of food and water for a walk of at least forty linear miles and probably more like a hundred miles up and down and around the ridges, mesas and gullies. Although lacking the traditional Apache training for such walks, Burr had learned quite a bit from Nachito, the ranch foreman, as he trained his grandson Charlie.

The morning runs with Charlie gave him more endurance. The bits and pieces of desert lore helped him to face rattlesnake and cougars without fear. And the training helped him to conserve water.

Despite his continual protestations that he was not an Apache and not even an Indian, Burr had learned enough from the old Apache foreman to persevere despite his pains and emotions. He had visions of his father, mother and old Nachito that provided him with courage and wisdom. But he also had physical encounters as well as visions with various cougars; obviously the cougar was his totem.

This novel reads like an eye-witness account of a desert journey with inadequate water, food and training. Burr's refusal to give up and die is a depiction of the best in human nature. This story is a very uplifting read.

Highly recommended for Mayhar fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of courage and perseverance.

-Bill Jordin

5.0 out of 5 stars medicine walk, February 10, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Medicine Walk (Library Binding)

I thought he was going to die of hunger. I thought he would be deprest because his father die. He was all alone in the desart with little food.He was seeing thing like cougers and water.He was encotering dimondback rattle snakes and cougers.