Born of the Sun

by Gillian Cross

Paula's journey with her father to find a lost Incan city becomes shadowed with mystery and danger, and in the end truths learned on the journey, not at the destination, are what is important.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Gillian Cross was born Gillian Arnold in 1945. She was educated at North London Collegiate School, Somerville College, Oxford and the University of Sussex. Although now a full-time writer who often travels and gives talks in connection with her work, she has had a number of informal jobs including being an assistant to a Member of Parliament. For eight years she also sat on the committee which advises ministers about public libraries.

She is married to Martin Cross and they have four grown-up children, two sons and two daughters.

Reviews

[Caron Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book took a while to get started, was a bit slow and tame

[Anum Farooq · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this as a child, absolutely mesmerized by the by the sense of adventure and familial discovery on the Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

[Marc Kamphuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Gouden Stad gaat om een expeditie naar een eens machtige stad van Inka's. Er gebeurt zoveel in dit boek dat je in de ene na de andere verbazing valt. Ik vond het een mooi boek om te lezen. Het is een avontuurlijk boek, maar tegelijkertijd ook een psychologische triller. Tijdens de expeditie veranderen mensen in een totaal ander persoon om hun doel te bereiken en om te overleven. Het boek is in feite een spiegel van de werkelijkheid en ik vond het niet erg om in deze spiegel te kijken.

[Cael Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

the main characters father and her go on an trip to find a lost city with a small team. They meet a native in the area that is willing to help them find it. The native dies and the natives son is the only one left to help them find the city. conditions get worse and worse and eventually they find a small valley were they believe the city to be but the way there is extremely dangerous and someone leaves the group and another dies (maybe). In the end they find the city. I think the theme of the book is to not let greed take over your life. The main characters father continued going on even after someone dies because he wants to be known as the person to discover the city. Someone else from the group takes some of the others food because they were hungry and some guy in the group tried to kill the mules so they wouldn't be able to continue. Overall I don't like this book to much but the story wasn't to bad and the characters are believable. I think I'm just not happy with the way the story went. There wasn't enough action in the book and when there was it was horrible. The sad moments stay through the whole book though.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book more than I thought I would. When I started it I really thought it was going to be an old classic Enid-Blyton type of thing (nothing against Enid Blyton, its just that her way of writing is not exactly exciting) but instead it was a really good book! Well researched, exciting. Not perfect, and I didn't like the ending much, but good. I liked all the characters because they were strong, really imaginable and you get to know them well. The book was well written enough to make you (or me, anyway) feel emotions about what you were reading. Quite different from modern books, something different and I like that.

[Carien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an oldie, but it's one of those books I can read again and again. It's got action, adventure, suspense and drama. Paula sees her father a a hero and this view makes the change in his behaviour extra creepy. The jungle they travel through adds to the creepiness, isolating the expedition party even more. The book is well written and the characters are very interesting. I think I've read this book at least 6 times now, but I keep getting drawn into the story every time.

[joyce lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

GOOD book. it did NOT truly have a "happily ever after ending", but DID have VERY realistic one. surprising to see sometimes, but nice and refreshing. great way to show teens that life does NOT always go as planned, but, that does NOT necessarily make it a "bad thing", just a different one.

[Katie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book, i couldn't put it down

[Mikaela Renz-Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as a 6th grader. It's haunted me ever since. Read it again this summer, and I still love it. Of course it's a bit more juvenile than I'd care for now, but ... it works for me!

[Janine McManus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book but it was not very exciting. It was a gentle read and I was disappointed at the end. It could have been much more involving.