The Talking Earth |  | Author: Jean Craighead George
Publisher: HarperCollins
List Price: $5.99
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Seller: atlanta-book-company
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 287033
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 160
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0064402126
EAN: 9780064402125
ASIN: 0064402126
Publication Date: October 23, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Billie Wind lives with her Seminole tribe. She follows their customs, but the dangers of pollution and nuclear war she's learned about in school seem much more real to her. How can she believe the Seminole legends about talking animals and earth spirits? She wants answers, not legends."You are a doubter,"say the men of the Seminole Council and so Billie goes out into the Everglades alone, to stay until she can believe. In the wilderness, she discovers that she must listen to the land and animals in order to survive. With an otter, a panther cub, and a turtle as companions and guides, she begins to understand that the world of her people can give her the answers she seeks.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
 Something really different for the northeastern reader January 30, 2008
Elizabeth A Triano (In Transition, NY (watch this space))
While I read _My Side of the Mountain_ as a kid, thirty-odd years ago, and my older son has read it at least once, I had never heard of this title. I picked it up curiously at a used book sale and am reading it to my younger son, who is in the fourth grade. The details of life in the Florida Everglades are new to him especially, and in many ways to me also, and we are enjoying the story very much. The only problem is that by bedtime, sometimes he is too sleepy to get all the way through the not-terribly-short chapters. But the story is holding his attention, perhaps more than the semi-familiar My Side of the Mountain would have done, as it is all new -- plants, weather, terrain. Highly recommended. If you or your child are interested in otters, and enjoy books that move at a reasonable pace and not a zip-zip soundbite pace, check out _Tarka the Otter_, a British classic by Henry Williamson.
It worries me how many young and not-so-young reviewers don't seem able to read a simple book like this one. I have been struggling with the schools to challenge our students more (my own children included), and some of the reviews here demonstrate how our true literacy has declined in the past decade or two. If a story doesn't start with a bang and trip over itself with verbs and action and cliff-hangers on every page, readers are bored and claim that they can't understand it. Some people would say that we read more than ever - but I don't consider text messaging and sloppily spelled "IM"s and emails to be reading. Too many websites look like they were written by a third grader.
The Talking Earth moves at a slow pace, like the water through the Everglades. The media is appropriate to the message. But the American reader is, all too often, less literate than an oyster. And tomorrow's science, literature, medicine, art and engineering will suffer.
 Boring. Without Depth. May 11, 2005
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book is a total bore. It is NOT worth your time. This book was seriously made for YOUNG readers who do not care about detail. After the first few chapters I would of put it down but it was a school assignent. Tough luck. This book had hardly enough detail to ever BEGIN to comment on. I had troulbe with book reviews because no emotion was intertwined with the book. Before you even pick up this book look into the bore you are getting youself into. You have been warned.
Listen to Your Mother!! Earth, that is!! October 28, 2004
renaissance woman (SW Florida)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
What a beautiful journey Billie Wind, the young Seminole girl, takes. Her modern beliefs and views put her at odds with the tribal elders, who ask her to choose her own punishment. She sarcastically suggests that she spend time alone in the Everglades, and is surprised when they agree. Billie's journey takes her to a fire that clears an island and forces her to take refuge in a pit - an ancient dwelling of Calusas. She begins to learn to understand what the animals and plants are telling her, through thier calls and movements. The birds show her where dry land is, the crickets and frogs let her know when a predator is near, the mangroves tell her when she nears the coast. The beautiful descriptions make the Florida environment come alive in this book. And as I listened to this book on tape with my two children, aged 8 and 11, we could also feel this connection that Billie makes with the land. My kids are eager to listen to this story at every chance we can get. I think they yearn for the self-sufficiency that Billie Wind develops in the story. The quietness of this story reflects the peace of nature. At a time when humans are more disconnected from the earth than ever before, this book is a call to turn off the TV, headphones, treadmill, radio, etc. and take a walk or kayak through the wetlands, listen to the birds, watch the grasses move. A book like this can remind us of the forces of nature, both terrible and peaceful. There is great drama and suspense in this story of a young girl finding her way in the natural world. The earth is talking to all of us, read this book, then come outside and try to hear what she is telling you.
J.R.'s review April 25, 2003
J.R. (Nebraska USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I thought the book was very good. It had a lot of details and it was easy to picture what was happening in the book. Anyone who critisizes Jean Craighead George's "The Talking Earth," needs to get a taste in good books. I chose it to read in school as an Accelerated Reader Book and it was great. My teacher didn't choose it for me I chose to read it and if I had a chance to read it, I did. If you like reading about indians and stuff like that, than I suggest that you read this book. If you don't like it, than read one that you do like. Thankyou for reading my review.
The Talking Earth: Speaks Out Loud! March 1, 2003
R Lin (Cerritos, CA USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Talking Earth
by Jean Craighead GeorgeThe Talking Earth is about a Seminole girl named Billy Wind who is very curious. When her tribal elder spoke of spirits everywhere there is, Billie said she did not believe in that. The religious leaders got very angry and asked what punishment she should give herself. In sarcasm, she said that she should go to the pay-hay-okee (the Everglades)and stay until she heard the spirits of the animals talk, see the magical serpent, and find the little people who lived under the ground. The people agreed while she wondered in shock because it was just a joke. She was still forced to enter the pay-hay-okee and hear the spirits herself. Therefore, she stayed there and lived with an otter, a panther, and a turtle. At the end, she endured a hurricane in a cavern and lived to tell the tale.
The reason I liked this book is because it had a lot to do with the flow of nature. It told about why the Seminoles said there were animal gods and magical things. It also said how nature has its own special type of flow and to disrupt it can result in disaster. It also had a lot of feeling into what happenned around her and why it happenned.
I also liked the book because it was very interesting. I couldn't stop reading it until I had no other choice. It grabbed me in the ears and pulled me into the book with all my senses so that I could feel everything around me. In the tense parts, I was scared for Billy Wind and I was also relieved when that part was over. It was like real life!
My favorite part was when Billy wind had just entered the pa-hay-okee. There was a great fire that burned down the whole forest that she was in. She found a strange pit that seemed to be inhabitted before. She found a baby otter inside a small tunnel and named him Petang. She also noticed there were small artifacts in the walls that were related to the Seminole's. She stayed and tried to reach home and get an archeologist to the site.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 23
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