The Light in the Forest

This book was very emotional and meaningful. It tells a powerful story about identity, family, and difficult choices. The characters feel real, and the writing keeps you interested until the end. It also makes you think about history and culture in a deeper way. I would definitely recommend it for students and anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

My grandson is enjoying his books for Christmas. He especially likes the Puffin Classics.

...my package was lost because of Hurricane Helene, so I didn't get to read it... I'm sure it's a good book though.

Very nice binding, and print. Worth the price. Pass this kind of product down a generation or two

I didn't realize that this was a children's book when I ordered it. I will now mail it to my great-grandchildren. I am sure they will enjoy it more than I.

The first time I read this, as a school assignment, more than 50 years ago, I accepted it as little more than a nice story. Yes, this is a work of fiction but the fiction exists only in terms of the specific dates, names and places. Everything, which occurs, in this book, really happened, commonly, in our country’s 17th through 19th century histories. Unfortunately, most of our public grammar schools, even most of our public high schools, still teach history as little more than a series of unrelated, unconnected dates, places and names, to be committed to memory. No connections are made, to the circumstances, causes or conditions, which surrounded the people and places or generated the actions. It’s not until one gets into undergrad school that one has evan a small chance of understanding history, in the related-circumstances or bigger picture senses. This book is an excellent introduction, for youngsters, to understand how and why some things occurred, not just that they happened in an apparent vacuum. While our Native American tribes had absolutely no comprehension of the concepts of DNA, RNA or heredity, they knew, from the first-hand results of their continuous inbreeding, that they needed diversity, from outside their limited circle, to keep their groups functional and competitive, with the other tribes. Theft/adoption, of women of child-bearing ages and children, from other tribes or societal groups, was their way of exercising their sole ability to cope with those diversity needs. This novel explains these things, at a level compatible with tweens and early teens, without making it seem like they’re receiving a history lesson.

Beautifully written, A Light In the Forest is the tale of a young boy torn between worlds, fiercely prejudiced against each other. True Son, a fifteen year old white boy was taken in by a Native American tribe when he was only four years old, and sense then his hate for the white people has grown stronger and stronger. But now that he is forced to return to his original family, he learns that his " Delaware " people are just as flawed as any culture or civilization. This book is both a coming of age story as well as a tale that blurs the lines between right and wrong. A surprising page turner, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I liked this book because it resists the temptation to Idealize the American Indian. The main character was taken as a youth by indians from his family then forced to return years later. He does not get along well with his real family He does not admire or understand his father who as a pale sickly older man lives his life indoors working as an accountant. He does not like living indoors. The only one he bonds with is his much younger brother. He runs away from home back to his indian family but on a raid with them he is horrified when they kill the children of the settlers they attack. He is left between two worlds unable to adapt to civilized life and unable to live with the murderers he finds himself among.

Touches your heart

This is about the red Indian, how they lived and what they believed, a children's story with is still a classic on the American School reading list

These fabric hardcover books are beautiful and so well made. The kind of books to cherish and keep in a library. Quality books for quality stories.

This story never loses its appeal for me.

I read the book and am sharing with others; it is a great story, pertinent to our time.