Weasel: Novel-Ties Study Guide - Softcover

Grade 4-7-- Nathan Fowler, 11, narrates a short, exciting story of his adventures in 1839 Ohio--a year in which he faces grave physical danger and arrives at mature moral decisions. Nathan and his younger sister, Molly, fear that misfortune has befallen their father, who has not returned from a hunting expedition. Ezra, a wild-looking, tongueless man, appears at the cabin and beckons them to follow him into the woods. He leads them to their father, who had been wounded in an animal trap and left for dead by a white Indian hunter called Weasel. Nathan is captured by the villainous Weasel, but escapes when the man is in a drunken stupor. Forever after, Nathan reproaches himself for not killing Weasel when he had the chance, but when he attempts to settle the score later on, he realizes that vengeance is not up to him, and that the manly deed sometimes involves patiently waiting for nature to take its course. Written in spare, vivid language, often poetic, the novel is plausible historic fiction that deals with the inhumane treatment of native Americans from a different angle--by turning the brutal results of hate back on the white race itself. The character of Nathan is unforgettable. --Yvonne Frey, Illinois Central College, East Peoria
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