5th&up. 2009 Newbery Honor Book. This is a rather well-crafted book. Told in a chatty welcoming narrative style, the author carefully holds a number of story threads together and doesn't fully tie them together until the skillfully realized end of the story. It's a curious mix of an old-fashioned animal adventure story, a traditional feeling native-american-like folk-tale and a tense thriller for the junior set. Unique and satisfying, but I do wonder who the audience is supposed to be. I wouldn't recommend it to readers in early middle school due to the tension, some of the tampered down violent threads and the jagged chronology. Fifth grade and up (maybe fourth) is more fitting, but I think the cover and basic idea of the plot (it's a lot more exciting and involving than it sounds) would make it a hard sell to that age group.