Michelle Isenhoff has a new fan in me! SONG OF THE MOUNTAIN is a beautiful story, lushly told in rich, descriptive language that is almost poetic. I am a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway, so forgive me for the comparisons. Robert Penn Warren wrote that Hemingway, citing Hemingway's THE SUN ALSO RISES (my favorite novel of all time), was more of a poet that an novelist. The same could be said for the author of SONG OF THE MOUNTAIN, but she certainly is a good storyteller! This book is so well-written, sentence for sentence.

This is an enchanting story with an ancient oriental background and the myths it makes use of are based on or derived from stories from the Bible and perhaps other religions - stories regarding the Creator, the Fall of Man, the Tree Of Good And Evil, and a saving tree (such as the Cross of Christ). These elements went into this elaborately and ingeniously dreamed up story.

This story features a young boy and the old guru who raised him. Their relationship reminds me of the relationship between the old fisherman, Santiago, and the young boy who fishes with him and keeps him company and looks after him, Manolin, in Hemingway's THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA. This book is also, thanks to Michelle Isenhoff, tempting me to read KIM, by Rudyard Kipling. KIM also features a young boy who lives with an old Tibetan lama. Yes, that Kipling book is on my table. That is one thing about really good books - they tend to make you want to read other really good books. So, I guess I am going to have to peruse the Isenhoff bookshelf for other goodies. I have a feeling I won't be disappointed.

I loved SONG OF THE MOUNTAIN, and I highly recommend it for Middlegraders and even older folks.