Listening at the Gate

Since exhausting Ursula K. Le Guin's books, I have not found anything to match her work until now. Betsy James creates an entire world and culture through which to convey timeless wisdom and real-life characters. Le Guin describes the book as "bursting with passion and poetry" and I enthusiastically agree. I loved the writing AND the story. This book is an important contribution to the field, and to readers everywhere, at all ages.

I am a middle school counselor. My students love this book! They pass it around and chatter away with rave reviews after they finish it. Long Night Dance and Dark Heart are also favorites. We've been talking about writing a letter to Betsy James and letting her know how much we all like the book. You won't be sorry you bought this book!

This is the third in Betsy James's Seeker Chronicles, and the best yet. Start with Long Night Dance, continue with Dark Heart, and then finish up with Listening at the Gate. The story takes you to another world, where seals and humans have a history together, where multiple cultures collide, and where a girl must grow to be a woman in difficult times. The artwork in all three books is also by Ms. James, and is a delightful addition, allowing you to see her characters and world as she imagined them herself. Must read for both teens and adults!

Kat and Nall, the main characters, are each outcasts from their own groups: a red-haired daughter of a Hill tribe/trader marriage and a seal-man from the islands at the edge of the world.. Drawn together in the midst of conflict, they must bridge the huge differences in what they have been taught and what they have found to be true. One of the best recipes for fantasy is to bring a carefully rationed amount of magic into a meticulously real world. Betsy James has made a such a world, down to the ecology, the folk songs, the children's games, and a complex social network where the bad guys are not all bad and the good guys are divided, challenged, and complicated. These construction details are not just painted background, they are part of the energy that makes the story move. This one won't put you to sleep and it won't go down with "a little bit of sugar." Highly recommended

No one promises that life will be wonderful, but sometimes it is filled with wonder. This rich fantasy puts real people in danger, takes them to the edge of what they know, want, and feel; takes them to the edge of existence, beyond what is known and what seems possible. Kat's task is nothing less than to save the world. She will do this with the help of a half-man/half-seal, with assistance from people she has always been warned against, and with her own newfound courage.