Pierre Talon, a ten year old boy is asked to accompany famous explorer La Salle on an expedition to find help for the settlement where he lives. The year was 1687, Pierre lives with his mother and siblings in very poor conditions. His father disappeared during an expedition, his sister died of illness. Pierre feels responsible for his family but can’t refuse the great explorer. He must leave them behind in hope that he may find his father and return with aid to help them.
On the expedition, Pierre makes a friend named Monseir. Together they struggle through the difficult journey faced with hunger, exhaustion, illness and murder. The boys both end up deathly ill and are nursed back to heath by the Hasinai Indians. Pierre needs to decide where his loyalties lie; his family, France, his newfound Hasinai family, his best friend or Spain. Pierre faces many hard decisions and experiences as he becomes a teenager. This is a work of fiction based on actual historical events and people.
I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this book. Normally this would not be a subject that would interest me greatly. This part of history has never thrilled me. I really enjoyed how the author tells the story from actual events from the time period and relates them to this character and his family. This kind of writing takes some extra leg -work for the author. I love how she took so much care to create this story and characters to fit as accurately as possible with the history that was found about Pierre Talon.
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