For a few hours yesterday I was living in the world of Paleolithic man. Fire is a precious commodity; tools are treasures made by skilled members of the community and I watched as bows and arrows were discovered and refined. I really was there - the writing in this book is so evocative of place and time and most of all harsh weather conditions.
Irian and Ulana have seen their families massacred by a creature they call the Beast.
"The eyes a golden yellow, almost beautiful in their sheer savagery; the fur of the head a snout patterned with the ugly scars of old wounds; and the fangs! Ivory white, and more like tusks than actual teeth, they curved down past its lower jaw and ended in jagged spikes."
It is late Autumn, and the Winter will be bitterly cold and dangerous. Ulana has been injured in her own confrontation with the Beast and Irian is so traumatized he has lost the power of speech. The pair are hopelessly underprepared for their journey, and they have no fixed destination except to get away from the cave where they have lived all their lives. Cave dwellers live precarious lives constantly on watch for the Beast and other huge predators such as the Pard. They use fire for cooking of course but also for protection. As the story opens Irian and his father have the task of maintaining the fire through the night but exhaustion overcomes them, they fall asleep and the Beast attacks.
"For a mere split second, he glimpsed a scene of carnage; a nightmare vision of strewn bodies, of smashed pots and weapons, all of them corpse-grey in the uncertain dawn. Then the whole scene was replaced by a huge head and a great scared face, no more than an arm's length away."
The two young people on their own could never survive their journey or escape all the dangers that surround them except for the help of Trug. Trug is an old loner woman who survives by trading. She is a skilled traveler, and she carries a huge bag filled with all manner of tools. After their meeting she is able to help Ulana, whose wounds have begun to fester. Then she helps the friends make a shelter and together they survive a violent storm. Ulana is heading to the flint fields for trading. In spite of her grumbling, she teaches Irian and Ulana how to trade and by the end of that visit both have warm coats and more importantly Irian has discovered his own skill as a tool maker. Irian meets an old reclusive man who has brilliant tool making skills but sadly he dies. With his dying breath he gifts Irian some small strange very small weapons.
"A tiny thing. A sliver of stone, no more, but chipped into a strangely curved shape that gave it a beauty and mystery that made it stand out from the rest. ... What used could there be for such a tiny weapon?"
I loved the care people take with transporting fire and the discovery that Trug finally shares about using a flint to make fire rather than need to rely on occasional lightning strikes and burning bushes.
"she pulled apart the clay ball, splitting it neatly in two. At its core lay a tiny bed of hot coals. With two sticks, tong-style, she removed one of these tiny spots of glowing red and placed it carefully in the grassy nest. Working quickly now, she closed up the clay ball, preserving the rest of the coals; then folded the nest on itself and blew gently on it. Puffs of smoke immediately billowed out, followed by a spurt of flame that grew and grew."
There are also interesting issues in this book about kindness, sharing, trade, using your gifts and talents and trust.
If you read this book with a class I am sure you and your students will notice the way Victor Kelleher weaves in the seasons as a plot device moving from the dangers of Winter (danger and despair) through Spring (hope) to Summer (good times ahead).
"Within minutes the temperature plunged and they were caught in a complete white-out that transformed even the closest trees and rocks into indistinct ghosts. The driven show, in the form of tiny ice crystals, stung their faces and hands; while the intense cold bit into their very bones and made each breath a form of torture. Worst of all was the wind, cutting and cruel ... "
The Cave just has to be a CBCA (Children's Book Council of Australia) Notable title either in Older Readers or perhaps Younger Readers. This book might better suit readers aged 12+ or very mature readers aged 11+. The print size is quite small. You will see in the reviews below that the age recommendations do vary widely. Our Australian journal Reading Time said Grades 4-6; Buzz Words said 12+; and Kids' Book Review say 10+. There is a one scene in the story where Trug tells Ulana to be very careful at the flint fields. Ulana is a pretty girl and the men there could be dangerous. Check chapter 7.
Kelleher laces the fairly straightforward text with hints of more complex philosophical tension—Ulana’s utilitarian idealism favours sharing resources and knowledge, while Trug relies on more defensive trade tactics, with Irian suspended between them, fighting his own demons and slowly fostering a sense of purpose in the aftermath of losing his known world. Books+Publishing quoted on Facebook.
Reading The Cave I kept thinking about earlier books by Victor Kelleher. Sadly, these are both long out of print. If you are lucky one or both of these might still be held in your school or local library. I adored both of these when I read them many decades ago.
Companion books:
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