Description:

When a twelve-year-old wakes up as a human girl-instead of a bear-one cloudy morning, she embarks on a thrilling journey through both mortal and immortal worlds...to mend her past, face her fears, and save all of the realms in which she treads.

From Publishers Weekly

Based on Pacific Northwest Native Americans oral literature, Berman's touching fantasy chronicles the journey of Cloud, who at the novel's start awakens one morning as a 12-year-old human girl, when the night before she had been a bear cub. A great bear, one of the immortal "First People," otherwise referred to as a "four legs," had once kidnapped her human mother, Thrush. Cloud was the result. Taking human shape is a disturbing and difficult conversion for her, and the book's young adult audience will relate to her disorientation and awkwardness, an obvious metaphor for even your average adolescent struggle. Separated from her mother, and violently ostracized by her stepfather Rumble (the tribe's chief), Cloud strikes out on her own to seek her paternal heritage, gain self-understanding and come into her powers. Berman balances the story's mythology with convincing emotional subtext, including Cloud's desire to be accepted among her human family and the often ignoble attitudes of the human elders. With its sympathetic young heroine and density of action, this richly re-imagined folk tale may straddle young adult and adult audiences.
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From Booklist

Starred Review Richly blending mythology and folktale, Berman catapults readers into a fantastic world of shamanic wars, talking animals, and immortal beings of frightening power and awesome beauty. In keeping with the mystery of the place, young Cloud has shed overnight the bear part of her identity and wakened as a 12-year-old girl, which outrages and threatens her stepfather, King Rumble. Years before, Rumble murdered Cloud's bear father, Lord Stink; ate the bear's flesh for its power; and magically bound its ghost. Drunk on power, Rumble neither knows nor cares that the legendary Lord Stink's death has ripped a hole in the fabric of the world. Unmagical, outcast Cloud, who wants only to be a child and to be loved, is the only one who can repair the damage. Her monumental task still unrevealed to her, Cloud flees her village and Rumble's murderous threats. Thus begins a long and perilous yet exciting and often wondrous journey to wholeness. On the way Cloud will fall into many deeply depressing situations, but Berman's imagination seems to know no bounds. For as desperate as are the problems Cloud faces, their solutions are correspondingly ingenious. Berman's utterly absorbing, unforgettable first novel announces a truly original and unique voice in fantasy. Paula Luedtke
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