Wild Song

by Candy Gourlay

This is an outstanding novel set in 1904, a few years after the Philippines became a US colony. Luki is an excellent hunter, but the Bontok elders forbid girls from hunting and are arranging her marriage. When the tribe is offered a journey to the USA to take part in the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Luki seizes the opportunity. At the Fair, visitors already have fixed ideas of what Luki and other indigenous people should be: headhunters should not also be farmers, and why aren’t they all singing and dancing? As everyone is being turned into distorted versions of themselves, Luki resists being reduced to an amusing object for show. She loves the America that is unafraid of change and full of choice and possibility. But in experiencing the world outside her culture and ordinary life, she also encounters another America: one that turns ritual into entertainment and despises the sight of her. A brilliant historical novel aimed at YA readers, but which adults and some younger children will definitely enjoy as well. Stand-alone follow-up to Bone Talk.