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    The Great Death
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    The Great Death
    Unavailable
    The Great Death
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Great Death

    Written by John Smelcer

    Narrated by Lorna Raver

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The Great Death arrived with the man from downriver, the one who came with the light-colored strangers and had little red spots covering his body. Thirteen-year-old Millie and her younger sister, Maura, are fascinated by the guests, but soon sickness takes over their village and they have little time to think of anything else. As they watch the people they know and love die of the plague, the sisters begin to realize that they will have to set out on their own to find a new home.

    Alone in the cold Alaskan winter, struggling to overcome the obstacles nature throws their way, the girls discover that their true strength lies in their love for each other.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateDec 22, 2009
    ISBN9780739371763
    Unavailable
    The Great Death
    Author

    John Smelcer

    JOHN SMELCER is the author of many nonfiction and poetry books for adults, as well as a young adult novel, The Trap. Mr. Smelcer has been a visiting professor at various universities around the world and is the associate publisher and poetry editor of the literary magazine Rosebud.

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    Reviews for The Great Death

    4/5

    22 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      When smallpox kills all but two young girls in a remote Alaskan village, Maura and Millie set out to reach the settlement often mentioned by their elders. As the bitter winter descends, the two girls struggle with challenge after challenge along their journey, from losing their canoe to hunting down food. Their native traditions and skills enable their basic survival but their dogged determination to keep on despite a seemingly abandoned world is the story's suspense and heart. This novel is succinct and compact, as no-nonsense as a winter blizzard. Lib notes: scenes with the girls killing animals for food; implied scene of attempted rape.
    • 3/5
      Not as gripping as The Trap, Smelcer's previous novel, but still a fast-paced, engrossing survival story set in Alaska.
    • 4/5
      This was a nice, short book about two girls who are the only survivors in their village. A disease has been brought to their village in Alaska by European settlers and it wipes out everybody they know. The girls decide to travel to the next village for help and the book documents their travels. It was interesting and easy to read and the girls were both very strong and likeable. I think it would have been better if the book followed them further than it did instead of just leaving it to our inmagination but that's really the only complaint I have with this book. It was a heartwarming story and told well.