Fire-Hunter by Jim Kjelgaard Illustrated by Ralph Ray, Jr. Holiday House, Sep. 1951 Jim Kjelgaard’s eleventh novel, Fire-Hunter , is a fast-paced pre-historic adventure. Hawk, the Chief Spear-Maker of his tribe, is banished for defying tribal law and using a spear-thrower during a wooly rhinoceros hunt. He, along with a girl called Willow left behind by their hunter-gatherer tribe because of a leg injury, seem doomed as they must survive alone. Their survival depends on their ability to hunt smaller, more agile, game that are inaccessible to their tribe because the larger game—wooly rhinoceros, bison—are too large and deadly for them to hunt alone. Their defense is precarious, too, since Hawk can carry only a club and two large spears. Hawk’s desperation and curiosity lead him to adapt his weapons from throwing spears to a catapult-like spear thrower, what I’ve always thought of as an atlatl, to an early form of a bow. Willow does her share, too, helping Hawk understan...
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