The Spirit Line

by David Thurlo, Aimée Thurlo

Crystal Manyfeathers is caught between two worlds: her life at a modern American high school, and her life with the Dineh, her Navajo people, where spiritual ceremonies and traditions prevail. In deference to her father, Crystal prepares for her upcoming womanhood ceremony. But days before it starts, a valuable rug Crystal has been weaving for the event is mysteriously stolen. Her best friend Henry believes the theft is punishment for Crystal’s stubborn refusal to weave in the spirit line, a required tribute to the Navajo goddess Spider Woman. Despite their spiritual differences, Crystal and Henry launch a bold and dangerous search for the rug. Will they find it in time? And will Crystal at last learn to be at peace with her Navajo identity?

Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Fiction

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2004

About the author

David Thurlo, is co-author of the Ella Clah series, the Lee Nez series of Navajo vampire mysteries, and the Sister Agatha novels. His other works, co-written with his wife Aimée, include Plant Them Deep, a novel featuring Rose Destea, the mother of Ella Clah, and The Spirit Line, a young adult novel.
David was raised on the Navajo Reservation and taught school there until his recent retirement. He left Shiprock briefly to complete his education at the University of New Mexico.He lives in Corrales, New Mexico, and often makes appearances at area bookstores.

David and Aimée Thurlo were married for forty-three years. Aimée, born in Havana, Cuba, died in February 2014.

The Thurlos' novels, translated into many different languages, are available around the world.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book my sister found at the library when we were young, and she recommended it to me.
I don't remember much about it, but I remember it being an okay story.
I remember her making a blanket or something, and a scene with her and her guy friend trapped in this room at a warehouse. I think someone locked them in there.
I liked that her friend was a guy. I don't remember if there was any romance in here.
I also remember how her friend was able to throw his voice, so he makes an animal call or says something, and it sounds like it's coming from a different direction. That was pretty cool.

[Michael Loder · Rating 1 out of 5]

The basic story line is decent and reads well, but for someone who claims to have grown up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, Thurlo's fundamental ignorance of Navajo weaving is shocking. If the authors had done even a little more research, this could have been a good book about growing up on the reservation today. As it is, the phony details ruined the story for me.

Since their ignorance, or ignoring of basic weaving practice, is critical to the plot, it throws the whole book into a strange world of "What were these writers thinking?"
The Thurlos present the incorporation of a "spirit line" in a rug weaving as both typical and required of all Navajo rugs. Neither is true, although more Navajo rugs have spirit lines than used to, in part because tourists and collectors look for them. However, a spirit line is only possible if a rug has a border. Since chief blankets do not have borders, a spirit line is impossible for a weaver to put in. Yet the Thurlos have their heroine weaving such a pattern. Additionally, the idea that anyone would take a rug from a loom before completion is absurd. Such a rug would quickly unravel and have virtually no value. On a minor note, blue is not a vegetable dye—unless one counts store-bought indigo.
Even the late, great Tony Hillerman occasionally got cultural details wrong, but his errors did not affect plots or get in the way of a good story. Here the opposite is true. Readers deserved better accuracy.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book twice, once in middle school and again in high school I think. I remember that they're both Native American and she didn't want to do the traditional design in the weaving. I think there was a certain entity that was supposed to go into the pattern, but she didn't want to put it in. Bad luck may have resulted from her decision.
There was a moment when her guy friend was punishing some bad guys, who may have been stealing some rugs or something (and I think they made a comment about the 2 of them) and he used some plant in his medicine bag to make them itch. He's training to be a medicine man.
At the end she competes in the race and she ends up making the weaving as she was intended, in the traditional way and not the modern way.

[Tori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Culture is important but so is self identity. Culture ended up kind of completely overriding her identity so that was disappointing.

[Aaron Zimmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spirit Line
Aimee Thurlo
Viking Books (224)
Mystery/ Multicultural
0-670-03645-5
Aimee Thurlo’s novel, The Spirit Line, follows the unique coming of age story of Crystal Manyfeathers, a young Native American girl belonging to the Dineh-Navajo community of the Four Corners region in the Southwestern US. Crystal lives in two worlds, constantly oscillating between her Navajo background and her assumed identity at the American school she attends every week. Crystal doesn’t put much stock in the traditions associated with her Navajo background, but when the time comes for her to participate in a Navajo womanhood ceremony, she complies with the traditions to please her father. However, Crystal encounters trouble when a rug she weaves for the ceremony is stolen. Now Crystal and her friend Henry much search for the missing rug and expose the thief who stole it. This convincing and didactic multicultural novel is perfect for instruction in the 9th grade classroom and satisfies many instructional standards on the state and national levels, including multicultural standards.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crystal Manyfeathers is a talented weaver, just like her mom used to be. Things are hard now that she is gone. Crystal rarely talks to her father anymore, and she dreams of escaping the reservation. She is creating a special rug, one without the Spirit Line, a tribute to Spider Woman, a Navejo deity. Now she is suffering weird dreams and someone has taken her rug. Crystal must draw on her heritage and her friends in order to recover the stolen rug before it is gone forever.

[Partridge Public]

Thurle, Aimee and David

[Devon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was on my brother's BOB list. It was an interesting little book. Not a favorite. The story was kind of predictable, but it was still fairly well written.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read about Navajo teens' choices.