3 out of 4 stars
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I was completely drawn into Strong Heart from the first few pages. When Sarah arrives at her grandfather's door, a complete stranger, she is a sullen teenager. Sarah is forced into a hiking trip with her grandfather, his friend, and his friend's grown daughter. While on this trip, the group encounters surveyors for a big mining company that is trying to get a large, controversial project going in a park. The surveyors are less than friendly and it's clear they don't want anything to get in the way of their work.
Along the journey, Sarah draws with amazing talent and the group gets to know her better. She also learns about her grandfather and great-grandfather, who had made a similar hike when her grandfather, Tom, was a young man. During that trip, Bob-Bob passes away and Tom was forced to bury him deep in the wilderness. The group is on a mission to visit Bob-Bob's grave and leave an artifact that Tom removed from the park all those years ago.
During this trip, Sarah falls and in doing so embarks on an unbelievable adventure as one of the first people in North America. At first, this part of the story seemed a little strange to me, but I kept an open mind and was soon hanging on each word to find out what happens. The author, Charles Sheldon really made me think about what life must've been like for people when animals such as Saber Tooth Tigers and Mammoths walked the earth. He did a great job of drawing me into a time period I would not typically have read about.
When Sarah appears back at camp, no one believes her story, so she becomes quiet and withdrawn. During her fall, the artifact was lost, so the hikers return home. The rest of the book is a David and Goliath battle between the big mining company and the Native American tribe that wants the park to remain pristine and un-mined. The group realizes that the lost artifact may be the only way to stop the mining. They return to the park to find it and again, have a run in with the mining company's crew. I won't give away how things turn out, but you will be flipping pages as fast as you can to find out. I couldn't put this book down!
I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. It has all the drama and excitement I could ask for in a book. The characters are compelling, as is the story itself. The author made me feel as if I were on the hikes with the group. I could picture everything so clearly it was almost like watching a movie instead of reading a book. The only reason I didn't give it 4 stars was the formatting was strange. I read this on my Nook and almost every other page had strange text at the bottom. It almost looks like the name of a computer file. I also didn't like that the chapters were not marked. I don't know if this issue was only with the Nook or if other devices would have the same issue. I think anyone who likes an outdoor adventure tail would enjoy this book. It was an easy, enjoyable read.
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Strong Heart
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