Under a Stand Still Moon

by Ann Howard Creel

Book Overview

Set in the American Southwest in about 900 A.D., this is the story of Echo, a young woman whose destiny as a wife and mother is suddenly changed by an accident. She is forced to leave her village life... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974648183
• ISBN13: 9780974648187
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Brown Barn Books
• Length: 183 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.7" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Fantasic in every way!

Reviewed by Susan Pettrone for Reader Views (1/07) From the beginning of this book, the reader is drawn into the world of "Echo," a young Native American girl living in the southwestern United States around 900 A.D. We see her grow from a young girl who spends her happiest days playing and exploring the world around her with her friends and helping her mother with her younger sister. Her closest friends "jumping Fish" (her brother) and "Falcon" are her constant companions as they grow up day by day from children with not a care in the world, to young adults facing the world around them. Her relationship with Falcon changes as they grow older as well. From friendship grows love and they vow to be married one day when the time is right and Falcon has proven himself to be a man and worthy of marriage. To the three of them, life cannot be better, their threesome will stay close with the marriage and they will not have to part. Falcon prepares for his first hunt and with his return, plans to ask for Echo in marriage, a plan that seems perfect to all three of them. All seems happy and carefree for Echo until the day she happens to be in a place where a child falls from a high mesa and she catches it nimbly in her outstretched arms. From that day forward, her life changes in ways that she never dreamed possible....and all because she saved the life of this one child. For the child she saved is a child who belongs to the priest's and their group who live high on the mesa. And with the news of her heroic action a priest asks for her hand in marriage. Echo is crushed but knows that to ask for her hand is a compliment to her family and she cannot even think of refusing. So she is swept up into a marriage to a man she has no love for and who is not interested in her for a typical wife, but for someone who will be kind to him and help him as he grows older. She agrees to the marriage with the stipulation that he will teach her all his secrets of the priesthood and train her as he would a man. Her husband sees the wisdom in such a request and grants it thus beginning her studies as a student of the mysterious ways of their people. As the book continues, we see the tribe growing more and more aware that in order to survive, they must move on. For they have used up most of the natural resources of the area and as they years go by, it is harder and harder for them to prepare for the winters that lie ahead. Sadly they realize the futility of staying and one by one they move on leaving those who are too sick or old to stay and die where they lived. Echo stays behind caring for and burying those who die, as she feels she must do for her tribe. Her husband grows more ill as the days go by until he too passes on and Echo is left to bury her husband by herself. It is Echo's footsteps that are then the last to leave the mesa and all the memories it held for her people. After reading this, I found myself thoughtful, wondering if in fact this could have happened

An incredible and vivid story about the ancient Anasazi civilization

Set in the southwestern United States in 900 A.D., UNDER A STAND STILL MOON tells the story of Echo, a little girl born into the Waterfall Clan. Echo is considered special because she was brought into this world under a Stand Still Moon, a very rare season in which the moon halts its course in the sky and raises nightly between the two war gods. Echo's greatest wish is to have unlimited freedom to explore her world. However, her mother and grandmother want her to learn the ways of a woman and a working wife. So she is forced to stay at home, helping her family with chores and tending to her younger sister with not much time for exploring her world. While hard at work, she develops a crush on her childhood friend Falcon. Her love for him grows so deeply that she wishes to marry him. However, after she saves a baby from falling off a cliff, Sun Watcher, a High Priest whose incredible power scares everyone in the village, asks her family for her hand in marriage. Her family agrees, and so Echo must leave her dreams and family behind to marry and move in with Sun Watcher. While living with her husband, Echo discovers that he is very ill. She promises to take care of him if he promises to give her his power. He agrees, and starts teaching her the lessons of the sky. Meanwhile, tragedies begin to occur in her village, and Sun Watcher becomes sicker than ever. Will Echo be able to stay strong for everyone in the village and survive on her own, or will her world become a different place? UNDER A STAND STILL MOON comes to life as author Ann Howard Creel creates vivid images of the Anasazi civilization and the ancient people who represent natural Earth elements. This is an incredible journey that is not to be missed. --- Reviewed by Ashley Hartlaub

Wonderful book for young adults AND adults

When I was younger I read ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, and it became my favorite book of all time to this day. Never before have I found a novel to compare to that one, until now. Creel's powerful voice and storytelling make UNDER A STAND STILL MOON able to stand on the same shelf as that other classic. Don't miss it for yourself or your children.

how the Anasazi lived

Rebeccasreads highly recommends UNDER A STAND STILL MOON as a vivid, lyrical recreation of one girl's coming of age during terrifying times when her people, the mysterious & vanished Anasazi, who have lived on the mesas & plains of America's Southwest for generations, are threatened by their gods & the weather they control. A great read for lovers of pre-history how daily lives once were lived.

poetic page turner

Details of the southwest landscape and Anasazi culture are seamlessly woven into this classic coming of age story. Creel takes readers inside the heart and mind of young Echo, whose dreams are dashed when she is forced to marry an old High Priest instead of her childhood sweetheart. A quiet, poetic book with enough plot twists to make it a real page turner.