Stone Arrows

An excellent tale of two children's journey as they look for a safe haven. Set in the Mesolithic era, survival was harsh, especially for children on their own. Survival education started at birth, they learned how to gather the things they needed and hunt for their food. As the children travel, Elizabeth Barber educates us while weaving an excellent tale of resilience. I read this book as a group project with several middle school students and each had insightful comments and questions, so we read it again as we discussed the major differences in what they take for granted today versus what our ancestors worked every day to conquer. While written to a middle school audience, I'm sharing with a group of younger teens in hope it will spark their interest too. A really excellent story.

3.5 I think I have a hard time with books about prehistoric people. I feel like there’s so many stereotypical ‘caveman’ behaviors in all of them, stilted speech and unnecessarily convoluted names, this is no exception. What I do like is the perspective of children, and the need to survive. The premise of the book is a good one, the transition of power and coming of age of the main character. But, despite detailed descriptions and the enthralling journey involved, I don’t think my students are going to be interested.

For the first half, I really wasn't enjoying it that much, but it picked up after that, and I began to be a bit more interested in the story.
It felt a bit like it was trying to hard to bed similar to the Chronicles of ancient darkness by Michelle paver, but really not living up to it. And it's hard not to compare the two.
Two children running from their clan with a wolf at their side. However this story had little of the depth of CoaD, and not as much of an detailed look into the lives of these ancient people.
So overall a decent enough story, but not as detailed or interesting as similar books.