Angry at missing a week of summer video game entertainment, Jesse, a twelve-year-old boy of European/Native American descent, grudgingly follows through with his deceased father’s request that he join his Uncle Matthew and cousin Jason at Six Islands, on Georgian Bay, for a special camping trip. Uncle Matthew explains that Jesse’s father wanted Jason’s vision quest to be his introduction to their native culture. During their first night around the camp-fire, it is Jesse who has a vision, and the adventure begins. Not only is he swept back in time four hundred years, but he is transformed into a majestic, white-tailed deer. He must now survive the expert hunting skills of his ancestors while somehow rescuing his people before they are destroyed by warfare.
Raised in Toronto, Jesse is sent for a summer visit with his Wendat Nation uncle and cousin. The trip is designed to help him understand and appreciate his Aboriginal heritage about which he knows little. Although it is his cousin Jason’s vision quest, Jesse experiences disturbing dreams, in which he changes form to become a great stag. Time travel and magic realism combine as Jesse learns the history of his father’s people through his dreams.
Selected by the Canadian Toy Testing Council for their 2006 Great Books for Children list.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2007-2008.