Hunter

by Joy Cowley

A Maori boy with the gift of sight in 1803--a slave to Maori warriors hunting for the Moa bird--and fourteen-year-old Jordan--a plane crash survivor marooned on a deserted New Zealand island in the present day--experience interconnecting visions.

Genres: Childrens, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Survival

154 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2004

About the author

Cassia Joy Cowley is a New Zealand author best known for her children's fiction, including the popular series of books Mrs. Wishy-Washy.

Reviews

[Shannon cafe · Rating 3 out of 5]

One reason that hunter was my favorite character was because he was a maori slave and that he could see visions that no one else could. This book is a good read for people 15 and under. It has a good story line of Maori life chur in 1805 and mixed in with modern day life. one thing i learned from this book was to follow your instinct cause it could be hunter or your ancestor. Another thing i learned from this book was how to make a poultice(not sure if the real thing but-)from kawakawa leaves,Jordan spits it onto her brothers arm to stop it from getting infected with scabs.my favorite quote from this book is 'run!run!you do not have to die this was.go back into the mountains and be the master of your own ending.' it was one of my favorites because it shows that hunter had a real connection with the moa and was trying to save the very last one.

[Ryan Tomov · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked How the stories crossed over and how they linked together.

[Johnny King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. How it had two completely different perspectives and yet the author managed to connect them both and keep the novel so relevant throughout every page and every chapter. I found that I could share emotions and feelings with the protagonists. Joy Cowley created a phenomenal and interesting world within the gates of a book. Each page I turned, I couldn't stop, I was addicted. It felt as if this novel had two stories in one. For Joy Cowley to write this book with back and forth 'time travel' it was a risk, yet she executed it perfectly and created a one of a kind, great and interesting novel which I very much enjoyed reading.

[Florencia Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really enjoyed reading this book, it is rather interesting and has a very good story line and it is cool because it has maori in it. it is a good book for the ages 12-16 and im 14 and it was a real good book to read! very intense towards the end and i couldn't put the book down, very cultural and yeah. One reason that i liked it was because it was a good book for our age group, ka pai.

[Melinda Szymanik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spare, fast paced and satisfying. Deftly imagined and handled Maori history. Some words are a bit dated for the 2005 setting - Hipsters? Perhaps 'low-rise' or maybe just jeans. Recommended.

[Kyla Olliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the split narrative aspect of this novel. It really made me think about what the connection between Hunter, 1805, and Jordan, in 2005, might have been.

[Alex Tovar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very, very good book! very thrilling. It had me hooked on it. It also had me on the edge of my seat.

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a slave from 1805 who has the gift of Tane the god of the forest he sees visions of where animals are hiding and how to get them but one day he gets a vision of the future of a “Girl as white as the moon” and her brothers in a plane he says “a huge flying waka” “canoe” fly in the air but then start crashing. The captain died but the girl and her brothers survive. The girl and two young boys are very scared and the slave has to guide them to keep them alive. This is a good book i recommend reading it.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this book is very interesting because it is in two time zones, one in 1805 and one in 2005. I liked how in the end Hunter, Jordan, Baxter and Robbie ended up being related, I think it tied the story together well. It was very interesting, lots of cliff hangers, would defiantly read it again!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

its cool

[Notre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very intense book. Really recommend you to read it! :)

[Renee Glasgow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it but I don’t like books with descriptions of death in them

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Toia mai, he waka! Haul up your canoe! It could mean many things, but mostly it was a chant for coming home." (35)

For those of you who do not know Joy Cowley, she is New Zealand's most prolific and successful child and young adult author, having written over 600 books. Clearly, this is a woman who knows her craft.

"Hunter" is about a Maori slave boy, Hunter, who is on the run from his Maori warrior captors, and it is equally about Jordan, a teenaged girl and her battle for survival after the Cessna she was traveling in with her brothers, crashes. And here's the kick - Hunter and Jordan are somehow linked, despite Hunter living in 1805 and Jordan in 2005. The sub-plot is the demise of the moa, an enormous and now extinct New Zealand bird. Hunter thinks "the moa was probably like himself, the last of its kind" (14).

Cowley uses a simple structure to guide the reader across the two worlds. The italicised prologue lets us in on the plane crash right away (and is repeated almost word for word in chapter 8), then alternates chapters between Hunter's (1805) and Jordan's (2005) perspectives. It is written in the third person with brilliant use of dialogue and free indirect discourse to take us into the mind of the characters. The parallel stories are linked by "visions" - Hunter sees visions of a flying "waka" (the plane) and Jordan keeps hearing the word "waka" inside her head. And so the link between the two characters begins. These ethereal visions in the hands of another author could be cliched, but here they are authentic and add to the sacred mystery of the Maori culture element of the novel.

Cowley slows down the plot with descriptive passages and builds the tension with symbols and foreshadowing. The plot rises and falls, meandering like a cold river, but always with definite direction. Dialogue slows down the narrative and is a highlight for me. Cowley doesn't sound like an older person writing as a young person (so many books get this all wrong), her dialogue and therefore characters are authentic, not affected. Cowley is not afraid of metaphors, which provide a sensory world for her reader: "The sky was a bowl of cloud soup" (20).

Joy Cowley understands and respects her audience and like the title of her practical no-nonsense guide to writing for children, "Writing from the Heart", she knows how to do just that. I'm intrigued by the dedication in "Hunter": "For Patti Gauch, who knew this story came from a deep place..." I know nothing of Cowley's genealogy but the story feels like it was a part of her somehow.

"Hunter" is an excellent example of New Zealand literature, perfectly pitched to its audience.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a slave from 1805 who has the gift of Tane the god of the forest he sees visions of where animals are hiding and how to get them but one day he gets a vision of the future of a “Girl as white as the moon” and her brothers in a plane he says “a huge flying walka” “canoe” fly in the air but then start crashing. The captain died but the girl and her brothers surive. The girl and two young boys are very scared and the slave has to guide them to keep them alive. Many exciting things will happen in this book that will make it so you won’t be able to put it down.

I love this book because it has many historical facts and opinions about the 1805 sealing years like how they only took the hide of seals even though they killed thousands of them and how the white men changed the tribes of New Zealand so they would never be the same.
I learned that at the most unexpected times you will always have someone guiding you.

[Laarni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good plot and well-written but ended too soon. By the middle, the story was just starting but it ended faster than it was built up - cutting short the children's and hunter's adventure and growth, which would have made the plot so much better if developed further.

[Patir Hirs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book written for young adults that I read because the subject is Maori culture. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Lots of suspense and the reader is given a good sense of the geography of the country as well as the early Maori way of life.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a good read, though I found the ending a bit too abrupt with the connection made a bit 'cheaply' between the two characters. Enjoyed the Maori cultural side and though it was, overall, well done.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Survival story, plane crash, Maori tribe/New Zealand

[Tesneem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave it to one of my reading groups... figured I should read it too!

[Pat Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing portrayal of the Maori life in 1805 interspersed with a modern day drama. Fans of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet would love this story. And I thought Joy Cowley only did early readers!

[Isabelle]

Great book set across different eras: late 1800 and modern times. Set in New Zealand, aspects of spirituality, old survival traditions...

[Julier]

Crashed on deserted peninsula in New Zealand; Jordan saves their lives guided by a Maori hunter from 200 years ago; special gift of connection. [Junior Library Guild Selection]

[Bianka Radojkovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

so-so.

[James Wakefield]

I loved reading this book because of the change between the years and the differences between the characters personality and the similarities