The Talking Earth [Paperback]

Jean Craighead George (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

"Billie Wind lives with her Seminole tribe. She follows their customs, but the dangers of pollution and nuclear war she's learned about in school seem much more real to her. How can she believe the Seminole legends about talking animals and earth spirits? She wants answers, not legends.

"You are a doubter,"say the men of the Seminole Council and so Billie goes out into the Everglades alone, to stay until she can believe. In the wilderness, she discovers that she must listen to the land and animals in order to survive. With an otter, a panther cub, and a turtle as companions and guides, she begins to understand that the world of her people can give her the answers she seeks.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A young woman of the Seminole tribe begins to question the validity of old customs over the more pressing problems of nuclear war and pollution, in a tale by the Newbery Medalist. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The conservation message grows naturally out of the excitement and concrete detail of the survival adventure story." -- -- The New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (October 23, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064402126
• ISBN-13: 978-0064402125
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Teens > Science & Technology > Ecology
  • #11 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( G ) > George, Jean Craighead
  • #68 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > People & Places > Multicultural Stories > Native North & South Americans

More About the Author

Jean Craighead George was born in a family of naturalists. Her father, mother, brothers, aunts and uncles were students of nature. On weekends they camped in the woods near their Washington, D.C. home, climbed trees to study owls, gathered edible plants and made fish hooks from twigs. Her first pet was a turkey vulture. In third grade she began writing and hasn't stopped yet. She has written over 100 books.Her book, Julie of the Wolves won the prestigious Newbery Medal, the American Library Association's award for the most distinguished contribution to literature for children, l973. My Side of the Mountain, the story of a boy and a falcon surviving on a mountain together, was a 1960 Newbery Honor Book. She has also received 20 other awards.She attended Penn State University graduating with a degree in Science and Literature. In the 1940s she was a reporter for The Washington Post and a member of the White House Press Corps. After her children were born she returned to her love of nature and brought owls, robins, mink, sea gulls, tarantulas - 173 wild animals into their home and backyard. These became characters in her books and, although always free to go, they would stay with the family until the sun changed their behavior and they migrated or went off to seek partners of their own kind.When her children, Twig, Craig and Luke, were old enough to carry their own backpacks, they all went to the animals. They climbed mountains, canoed rivers, hiked deserts. Her children learned about nature and Jean came home and to write books. Craig and Luke are now environmental scientists and Twig writes children's books, too.One summer Jean learned that the wolves were friendly, lived in a well-run society and communicated with each other in wolf talk -- sound, sight, posture, scent and coloration. Excited to learn more, she took Luke and went to the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory in Barrow, Alaska, where scientists were studying this remarkable animal. She even talked to the wolves in their own language. With that Julie of the Wolves was born. A little girl walking on the vast lonesome tundra outside Barrow, and a magnificent alpha male wolf, leader of a pack in Denali National Park were the inspiration for the characters in the book. Years later, after many requests from her readers, she wrote the sequels, Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack.She is still traveling and coming home to write. In the last decade she has added two beautiful new dimensions to her words beautiful full-color picture book art by Wendell Minor and others and - music. Jean is collaborating with award-winning composer, Chris Kubie to bring the sounds of nature to her words.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listen to Your Mother!! Earth, that is!!, October 27, 2004

By 

renaissance woman (SW Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Talking Earth (Paperback)

What a beautiful journey Billie Wind, the young Seminole girl, takes. Her modern beliefs and views put her at odds with the tribal elders, who ask her to choose her own punishment. She sarcastically suggests that she spend time alone in the Everglades, and is surprised when they agree. Billie's journey takes her to a fire that clears an island and forces her to take refuge in a pit - an ancient dwelling of Calusas. She begins to learn to understand what the animals and plants are telling her, through thier calls and movements. The birds show her where dry land is, the crickets and frogs let her know when a predator is near, the mangroves tell her when she nears the coast. The beautiful descriptions make the Florida environment come alive in this book. And as I listened to this book on tape with my two children, aged 8 and 11, we could also feel this connection that Billie makes with the land. My kids are eager to listen to this story at every chance we can get. I think they yearn for the self-sufficiency that Billie Wind develops in the story. The quietness of this story reflects the peace of nature. At a time when humans are more disconnected from the earth than ever before, this book is a call to turn off the TV, headphones, treadmill, radio, etc. and take a walk or kayak through the wetlands, listen to the birds, watch the grasses move. A book like this can remind us of the forces of nature, both terrible and peaceful. There is great drama and suspense in this story of a young girl finding her way in the natural world. The earth is talking to all of us, read this book, then come outside and try to hear what she is telling you.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Talking Earth: Speaks Out Loud!, February 28, 2003

By 

R Lin (Cerritos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Talking Earth (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (School & Library Binding)

The Talking Earth
by Jean Craighead George

The Talking Earth is about a Seminole girl named Billy Wind who is very curious. When her tribal elder spoke of spirits everywhere there is, Billie said she did not believe in that. The religious leaders got very angry and asked what punishment she should give herself. In sarcasm, she said that she should go to the pay-hay-okee (the Everglades)and stay until she heard the spirits of the animals talk, see the magical serpent, and find the little people who lived under the ground. The people agreed while she wondered in shock because it was just a joke. She was still forced to enter the pay-hay-okee and hear the spirits herself. Therefore, she stayed there and lived with an otter, a panther, and a turtle. At the end, she endured a hurricane in a cavern and lived to tell the tale.
The reason I liked this book is because it had a lot to do with the flow of nature. It told about why the Seminoles said there were animal gods and magical things. It also said how nature has its own special type of flow and to disrupt it can result in disaster. It also had a lot of feeling into what happenned around her and why it happenned.
I also liked the book because it was very interesting. I couldn't stop reading it until I had no other choice. It grabbed me in the ears and pulled me into the book with all my senses so that I could feel everything around me. In the tense parts, I was scared for Billy Wind and I was also relieved when that part was over. It was like real life!
My favorite part was when Billy wind had just entered the pa-hay-okee. There was a great fire that burned down the whole forest that she was in. She found a strange pit that seemed to be inhabitted before. She found a baby otter inside a small tunnel and named him Petang. She also noticed there were small artifacts in the walls that were related to the Seminole's. She stayed and tried to reach home and get an archeologist to the site.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Talking Earth Review, December 4, 2001

By 

Simon (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Talking Earth (Paperback)

Talking Earth is a very exciting book to read. The main character, Billie Wind, is a doubter of her tribe's beliefs and has to be punished. For her punishment, she chose to go to the Everglades to learn about her tribe's beliefs. There, Billie makes friends like Petang, the otter, Coootchobee, a panther, and Burden, a turtle. How will Billie Wind survive in the dangerous Everglades? Will she survive? Read the book to find out.

Billie Wind developed from the beginning of the book to the end. In the beginning of the book Billie Wind didn't care about her tribe's traditions. As time went by, though, she started to use the traditions to survive. At the end of the book, Billie tried to make Oats Tiger (now known as Hurricane Tiger) believe in the traditions. Billie Wind has learned much from her punishment and is using it to teach others.

Kerra S.
Grade 5
Mr. Sizemore's class
Pleasant Plains Elementary