Kin (Bind-Up) (PB) - Softcover

Dickinson, Peter

4.01

878 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330392255 ISBN 13: 9780330392259

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books, 2001

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The Kin are our ancestors - the first homo sapiens sapiens. Groups of Nomadic hunter-gatherers, they lived 200,000 years ago on the African savannah.

The adventures of four children from the Moonhawk Kin are told in the four linked books that make up this epic children's novel. Suth, Noli, Ko and Mana survive volcanic eruption, earthquake, floods, man-eating lions, monster crocodiles, hostile tribes and many other dramatic events, in brilliantly-told stories that inspire the reader's imagination about the nature of our world and the birth of the human race.

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Review:

In this ambitious quartet of novels for older children the award-winning author Peter Dickinson takes us back two hundred thousand years to witness the birth of the human race in Africa. The Kins are the first modern human beings and this epic tale starts with their forced exodus from their traditional homelands. Dickinson introduces us to Suth, Noli, Ko and Mana, all children of the Moonhawk Kin. As they roam the vast plains and valleys in search of new "Good Places" where they can peacefully live, so the children confront natural disaster, cruel hardships and brutal enemies, as well as their own developing hopes and fears. Dickinson intersperses his narrative with a series of magical interludes that are the mythical stories the Kin have made up to explain their world to themselves. But it is when the children take centre stage that these stories really come alive. Whether they are eating roasted leg of fox, travelling through the unknowable wilderness or exhibiting acts of essential human kindness in an entirely believable ancient landscape, once again Dickinson's cast of characters is capable of grabbing the reader's imagination and tweaking the heartstrings. --Nick Wroe

Review:

"It is a very fine and powerful work, and the matters it touches are universal" Philip Pullman, Guardian; "Not only a thrilling sweep of ideas and images; Dickinson has also created a completely believable and compelling culture and history from a period which has left virtually no trace. Mary Hoffman, Daily Telegraph; "Although Dickinson has already won many prizes, this book is one of his finest achievements yet." Nicholas Tucker, Independent"

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