A thrilling steampunk eco-fantasy for ages 9 & up!
A thrilling new eco-fantasy adventure for ages 9 & up!
Amazon #1 New Release in Children’s Environment and Ecology Books!
*American Fiction Awards Winner!*
*A 2021 “Best Book Awards” Children’s Fiction Finalist!*
★★★★★ “The Namer of Spirits is among the best of its kind!” —Literary Titan
*A LitPick 5-Star Book Review Award Winner!*
*A Green Earth Book Award Finalist!*
“The Namer of Spirits is what readers want and the world needs.” —NYT bestselling author Eliot Schrefer
“Simply spellbinding! Teachers and librarians who are searching for well-written fiction to pair with environmental non-fiction need to snap this one up!” —Darby Karchut, author of Del Toro Moon
“Absorbing, masterfully crafted, and brilliantly original!” —Jenny Goebel, Green Earth Book Award-winning author
“I adore middle grade that appeals to both kids and adults, and this is one of those books… a gorgeous story.” —Allison Alexander reviews
“A luminous and essential story for all ages. Everyone should read this.” —Laura Resau, Américas Award-winning author of Tree of Dreams
“Spectacular and incredibly exciting!” —Litpick reviews
“The Namer of Spirits shares DNA with the most celebrated epics featuring young female protagonists. Lyra Silvertongue from Philip Pullman’s grandiose His Dark Materials… Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games… Meg Murry from Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved A Wrinkle in Time... We need these stories to continue to inspire young women to acknowledge their gifts, claim their power, and take the necessary steps toward resolution. I hope other authors bear witness to these journeys as deftly as Todd Mitchell does through his majestic protagonist, Ash Narro.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books
Discover The Namer of Spirits:
Indiebound
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop.org
Or ask your local bookstore or library to order it!
In the frontier village of Last Hope, people dismiss twelve-year-old Ash Narro as a flighty child who claims to hear the true names of things. But when enraged forest spirits attack, Ash shows that the names she hears have power. After taming a destructive forest spirit, Ash embarks on a wild journey to save her village. In this steampunk eco-fantasy, the perils of deforestation and the power of friendship are explored through a fantastical adventure involving giant mistcats, tempestuous forest spirits, a supernatural puppy, and a girl with a special gift for shaping what things become.
More on this book and why I wrote it:
The thing you might not guess at from the cover or summary is that The Namer of Spirits was inspired by real events reported on in an investigative series done by NPR. The series documented how poverty is being used by corrupt officials in Brazil to drive illegal rainforest destruction. In those reports, Lulu Garcia-Navarro said, “The poor are the tip of the spear that pushes civilization forward into the wilderness.” That quote, and the complex reality it conveys, planted the seed that blossomed into this engaging exploration of some of the most critical environmental and social conflicts we face.
Fantasy gives us a vital way to understand our reality. And stories that speak to us shape the ways we think and act. It’s my hope that those who journey into the cloud forest with Ash and Fen will not only enjoy a thrilling story, they’ll gain a greater understanding of what’s causing rainforest destruction in our world and how to stop it.
Enjoy the adventure!
– Todd Mitchell
Fun Teaching Activities For This Book:
—The Namer of Spirits Map Activity (and Bonus Action Map Activity)
*Note: The Namer of Spirits includes Discussion Questions at the end for all three parts of the book. These questions can be used to help students interact with the text as they read. There’s also an Author’s Note at the end that helps students see connections between the book and the real world events and reports that inspired it.
