Ghost Hawk is a beautiful and heartbreaking story, powerful in it’s telling. I was swept up by Susan Cooper’s writing, transported to this lost world, and got overwhelmingly involved with the characters and the history. It is tragic and poignant; it made my eyes burn, anger seep to the surface of my skin, and my heart ache. Little Hawk is nearly eleven when his father takes him deep into the forest and leaves him there with just the clothes on his back, a knife, bow and arrows, and a tomahawk. Hawk must survive, alone, through three hard months of winter, fending for himself against the wild and the weather. When he returns – if he returns - he will be a man. We see through Little Hawk’s eyes as he looks for shelter, food, his spirit guide. But this is only the beginning of his story: when he returns from his sojourn, Little Hawk must remain strong and brave in the face of terrible loss; a loss that only scratches the surface of what is to follow in the coming years. Through Little Hawk’s way of life, Susan Cooper makes us feel a strong connection to the world, to the land and the animals, to Hawk’s people and to his past, the echoes of the generations that came before him and the echoes of the generations to come behind. But past and future echoes are quickly silenced by the arrival of the colonists: for this is the 17th century, the whites from across the oceans have arrived in force. Ghost Hawk is an incredible rendering of the tragic and heartbreaking effects of colonization on Native American peoples. It will make you cry and rage at the injustice, at the loss of all that history, of what has been done these people. Susan Cooper’s storytelling is exquisite and powerful, evocative and emotional; I can’t recommend it enough, for adults and teenagers alike.