A Snake Falls to Earth

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product (A Snake Falls to Earth) through Raincoast Books.  Affiliate Links will be used, thank you for your support of my blog, costs you nothing to do so, and is so much appreciated. 🙂 

Darcie Little Badger has put together a fascinating weave between two worlds, very different from each other yet intregrally connected.   A Snake Falls to Earth is a book to take your time with so that you can enjoy the shift in realities from Nina to Oli. 

What am I reviewing?

Raincoast Books sent me a lovely book written by Darcie Little Badger.  A Snake Falls to Earth supposes a world linked to ours.  This world with transforming animal/humans envisions an effect if animal extinction happens.  Imagine a world that if all the foxes died, in this mirrored world, all the fox people would die. 

This is an imaginative tale portraying Indigenous futurism, leaping back and forth between Nina and her family, and Oli and the start of his new life.  Can friendship make a scared soul brave enough to try?  Will friendship be the impetous to changing his world (and perhaps ours)?

A Levine Querido book of 352 pages written for youth 12-18.  I think anyone highschool and up would find this an interesting read through. 

A Snake Falls to Earth is the first book that I have read by Darcie Little Badger.  Since I thoroughly enjoyed this read I was curious about what other books she may have written.  I don’t know that I would pursue those other titles but I’ll leave that your discretion. 🙂 

What Did I think of A Snake Falls to Earth?

I enjoyed the story, I found it well-paced, with an interesting group of characters.  Oli, Brightest, Nina, Reign and Risk, and Ami along with parents, grandparents and helpful others.  A good combination of youth and age along with wisdom, folly and sneakiness.   You’ll find two worlds, that initially seem to have nothing to do with each other, but overtime, you see the connection. 

This story draws on  Lipan Apache culture and mythology, and you learn abit about how their language is put together.  Sometimes pronouns are genderless with context providing the clues which I found interesting.

Nina is a young girl researching her family history.  Trying to understand her great-grandmother’s life, while fearing what might be going on with her grandma.   She records what she learns, and listens to a Storyteller program, but isn’t comfortable sharing her own stories.   Ms. Badger does a great job of showing us her world.

Oli is a young shapeshifting cottonmouth.  Out experiencing his world on his own, forming new friendships, and making difficult decisions. Those friends help him become who he is meant to be. So that even if he’s scared he can still be thinking through problems. 

No artwork, no changes in fonts except when Nina is texting her mom. Just a steady chapterbook. 

Two worlds are built.  Through the course of the story we see how they might interact, and how one, more or less, mirrors the other.  We know there is evil (the nightmare) and that he has knights doing his bidding.  This creates conflict between the two worlds BUT friendship calls for fear to be overcome and action taken. 

Add it to your bookshelf?

I have to admit, I didn’t get the “they” form of address for Brightest. It didn’t sense when everyone else had a specific gender attached.  This could simply be that I’m 56 years old and this gender-oriented language stuff seems … odd.  But the they aspect of talking about Brightest didn’t seem to be gender connected so I think that’s why I struggled with it. 

BUT the story itself is well done.  The action moved along smoothly, there was comedy, and concern, and good timing.  There was surprise with some sneakiness from an unexpected source.  True concern shown for friends, and great friendships working together toward a common goal.   The native american way of storytelling is integral to how the story played out. 

You will understand the title A Snake falls to earth as you read the story.  Made SO much sense by the end of the read!  Oh, I love how the bad guy got his come-uppance at the end… was poetic I’d say. 🙂

The themes itself make it well worth a read.  Friendship, extinction, working together, environmental concerns, and listening to family.  It’s good stuff.