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The Ancient One is one of T. A. Barron's YA standalone novels, set in an Oregon old-growth forest where a 13-year-old girl named Kate accidentally walks through a tree and finds herself 500 years in the past, among the local Halay tribe whose land the forest is. The premise is the engine; Barron uses the time-travel structure to put a contemporary environmental crisis in genuine dialogue with the pre-contact American landscape.
Barron's strength is the seriousness with which he treats both his contemporary environmental concerns and the indigenous communities his protagonist meets in the past. The Halay characters are full people rather than fantasy props. The eco-fantasy framework earns its weight.
The book reads as middle-grade or younger YA today. The thematic seriousness gives it real legs.
Four stars. Recommended to YA readers and to adults who want their children's fiction with serious moral substance.
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