Raven Speak

For Ages: 12 and up

customer reviews

Asa is the daughter of a Viking chief whose clan is struggling to survive a never-ending winter. All the able-bodied men head to sea in search of food, leaving behind the children, the elderly, the sick—and Jorgen the skald, the wise man who will stop at nothing to take over the clan. When Asa learns the skald wants to kill and eat her beloved horse, she runs away—but soon realizes she has to return and try to save her mother and clan. And when she meets a strange woman with one good eye, who talks to her two ravens, Asa’s adventures really begin….

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Book details:

Margaret K. McElderry Books |
256 pages |
ISBN 9781442402492 |
April 2010 |
Grades 7 and up |
Lexile 900

$8.99 List Price

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Praise

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“Wilson’s dramatic prose brings to life the harsh conditions of life along the wintry, rocky seashore, Rune’s indomitable spirit and Asa’s fierce determination. Classic storytelling.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Although the story takes place over just a few days, Asa matures tremendously, becoming someone capable of sacrificing greatly for the good of her people. Outside of some references to Odin and draugrs, not much places the story as... ”

– Publishers Weekly

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Read an Excerpt

EIN

In the pale light of a wintry morning seven men saddled their ship across bucking white waves. A girl stood alone on the shore. Stiff and silent, with her fingers clenched into fists and her eyes creased into flashing slivers of blue ice, she watched them go. The others of her clan, those that still lived at least, had long since shouted their fare-you-wells. But they’d left their crumbs of hope at the ocean’s edge to shuffle back to the village, slump-shouldered and spiritless. The girl remained, staring rigidly at the horizon.

As dawn edged across the ponderous gray sky, the ship grew smaller and smaller....

TVEIR

Frost still rimed the wood planks of the byre door as Asa looped her fingers into the knothole. She threw her weight back in a succession of short jerks and it gradually came open, its cold hinges shrieking complaint.

A sour odor wrinkled her nose as she led Rune down the earthen ramp and into the dark, windowless shelter. None of the animals there greeted them; the cow merely flicked an ear, while her father’s two horses swung their heads round for just a moment’s dull gaze. Such a difference in a matter of months.

At summer’s end, as was the custom, all of the clan’s livestock had...

PRÍR

Jorgen held the smile on his face because she was looking at him and because it masked his real feelings. They were irritatingly strong feelings, feelings he couldn’t quite control, and so he made himself smile while he sat thinking. And listening, always listening. And rocking.

She didn’t fear him. That’s what annoyed him the most. The others, even her pigeon-chested father, the clan’s chieftain, could be made to move aside with a dark glance. It was a precious art, one he’d been polishing for many years now, and he wasn’t about to let some child—a girl, no...