Crossing the Panther's Path
A novel based on the true story of Billy Calder,  Tecumseh's translator and aide during the War of 1812. The teen  is half Irish and half Mohawk, educated by the Jesuits, fluent  in many languages, falling in love, and fiercely dedicated to  the cause of the Indians and the British in the war. Once  initiated into his mind and culture, readers will be walking  trails, canoeing streams, riding horses, and fighting battles  along with him. Throughout, he clearly matures and develops, but  only as an idealized character, which accomplishes the author's  apparent aim of raising him to heroic status. The valuable  Native American perspective is important: William Henry Harrison  is cast in an extremely negative light that rarely is  illuminated in textbooks, and the generalized American ambition  is shown to do what it indeed did, that is, destroy the homeland  and much of the culture of the native peoples. Such historical  aspects are so well woven into the text that they are at once  unnoticed and accepted as part of the story and how things were  at the time. Libraries should have copies of the novel to share  with the many readers who will enjoy it. -Andrew Medlar, Chicago  Public Library, ILCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.