January 26, 2005

12:46 PM

MeFi Book Detectives: It's a young adult novel I read back in the 80s, about a melancholy girl who travels back in time to a shamanic tribal village and is initiated into womanhood there. I think she apprentices with the medicine woman. It has been lingering in my unconscious brain for a long time and I feel like I need to read it again. Do you know it?
posted by butternut to (8 comments total)

Did it involve Irish kids who went back in time and spoke Gaelic and hung out with Finn MacCool and whatnot?
posted by loquax at 1:09 PM on January 26, 2005

no, but I did read that book! That was also a favorite of mine. There was a sequel to it, too.
posted by butternut at 1:21 PM on January 26, 2005

Saturday the Twelfth of October! LOVE that book. Very hard to find. Norma Fox Mazer is the author.
posted by peep at 1:47 PM on January 26, 2005

Did she somehow stumble through a portal from Central Park in NYC? If so, I read it when I was 14, but I don't remember the title.
posted by SpecialK at 3:26 PM on January 26, 2005

Yes! SpecialK, you and I are talking about the same book, and I'm sure that's the book Butternut is thinking of, too.
posted by peep at 3:40 PM on January 26, 2005

If we're thinking of the same book (and wow, that brings back memories!), it *is* the Norma Fox Mazer book, and the only place I can find it listed is Half.com, if you're looking to buy a copy.
posted by tastybrains at 5:29 PM on January 26, 2005

The only thing I remember was her trying to learn the language and wishing she had some tylenol when her adopted sister was sick. Amazing how memory works, though. .. even more amazing that others remember it and that peep actually remembered the title and author.
posted by SpecialK at 6:19 PM on January 26, 2005

HOLY CRAP. You've done it. I can't believe it, but this is it!!! Peep, Special K -- I thank you.
posted by butternut at 11:51 AM on January 27, 2005