Nina is a Lipan girl living in our world in the near future. She has always felt a strong connection to her ancestors and her older relatives, like her great-great-grandmother Rosita. No one is exactly sure how old Rosita was but photographs put her in the range of impossible. Before she died, Rosita told young Nina a story, an important story, but Nina couldn't understand the words in their mix of Spanish, Lipan, and English. She has the recording, and she's been working on a way to translate the tale. She knows this connection to the past is important.
Oli is a cottonmouth kid who lives in the reflecting world. This world is almost like ours, except more natural, and most of the people are also animals. Oli's true form is a cottonmouth snake. In his false form, he looks almost human, except for the patches of scales, and the diamond shaped irises. Oli just wants to relax in his home by the lake and have small adventures with his coyote friends, Risk and Reign. His best friend is a toad named Ami. Ami doesn't really talk or have a false form, but that doesn't change the feeling of comfort and companionship between the two friends.
Nina often thinks about the far past, the joined time, when animal people and humans shared the earth. She believes animal people still exist, and she longs desperately to meet one.
One day Ami becomes deathly ill, and the only way to save him is to cross into the human world to find a cure. Oli and his friends undertake this dangerous journey with nothing but hope they will find a human willing to help them.
As Nina continues to work on the story, another hurricane is moving closer to shore, and Nina is worried about her grandmother out in the country. She has become afflicted with a mysterious illness that prevents her from traveling very far from her home. What will happen if she has to evacuate?
Ami's illness and the approaching hurricane will bring these two worlds together, but will Oli and Nina be able to help each other and save the people they love?
Darcie Little Badger's Newbery Honor Book is a beautiful tale of friendship and belief as much as it is a testament to the forms of traditional storytelling. Nina mentions early in the books that traditional tales often don't have clean endings and beginnings. The people from these stories weave in and out of each other's tales. It is best to keep this in mind to better appreciate this book. While there is definite closure for the two main threads, those who are looking for a typical story structure and conclusion may be frustrated. But readers who are willing to relax into the ebb and flow of the tale will find a real treasure, and they may even find themselves thinking about future tales of Nina and Oli's adventures. Highly recommended. There is no sexual content, but there is some profanity sprinkled through the book.
