11,000 YEARS LOST

An 11-year-old finds herself in prehistoric Texas, where family politics are as confusing as the ways to kill a mammoth. Archaeology-mad Esther falls backwards 11,000 years, to a time of climate change and food shortages. The people she encounters think she’s from the stars and either love or fear her. With the help of her new family, Esther learns the language and the rudiments of hunting and gathering—but despite her affection for her clan, she wants to go home. Esther’s story avoids the common pitfalls of time-travel tales, in which the plucky heroine bestows modern values upon grateful primitives (although she does teach the Heimlich maneuver). Rather than discuss feminism or equality, she uses the clan’s reverence of her as the star-child to improve the lot of an outcast girl. Ultimately, prehistoric people are much like modern folk: some lovable, some not so much. Esther’s adventures in the messy world of late Ice Age Texas provide a compelling and believable read. Likable characters populate a fully realized world. (author’s note, map, bibliography) (Fantasy. 10-14)