Status
Available
Call number
Call number
FIC LIT
Collection
Description
Fantasy. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML:Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She's always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he's been cast from home. He's found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli's best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven't been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart. Darcie Little Badger introduced herself to the world with Elatsoe. In A Snake Falls to Earth, she draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family. It is not to be missed.… (more)
Publication
Levine Querido (2021), 352 pages
Original publication date
2021-11
Original language
English
Language
User reviews
LibraryThing member jennybeast
This is a bit of a strange book. It takes some time to get used to -- the pacing, the twin storylines, the different worlds. Like Elatsoe, it gives us a completely original universe to explore, and characters that are easy to love. It feels a little more nested in traditional tale telling, but I
As someone who grew up in Texas, I never thought I could care for a cottonmouth character, but Oli changed my mind.
Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Edelweiss
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love the connection between current technology and the vibrant Reflected World -- that reminder that while traditional tales may be ancient in origin, they are not stale or irrelevant to modern listeners. I particularly enjoyed Nina's bookstore and her family and her Grandmother's connection to their family's land. Beautiful and satisfying, with a strong message about extinction. As someone who grew up in Texas, I never thought I could care for a cottonmouth character, but Oli changed my mind.
Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Edelweiss
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LibraryThing member DianaTixierHerald
Outstanding fantasy, published as middle grade but wonderful for teens and adults, too. I didn't want this tale of animal people from a mirror world fighting seeming impossible odds to save a friend and having to travel between worlds to do so.
LibraryThing member villemezbrown
A disappointing follow-up to the terrific Elatsoe. While keeping many of the same elements and wonderful cultural concepts of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, this book splits itself between chapters narrated in the third person about a teen girl in our world and in the first person by a young
The characters are likable and things do pick up for the finale, but it leaves way too many loose ends. A sequel might actually be better if it can dispense with all the minutia of world building and character introductions and simply get to some adventuring. Or maybe just spin the adorable coyote sisters off into their own book, and let them have all the fun they want to have.
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cottonmouth snake shapeshifter in the realm of animal spirits, and unfortunately the two storylines don't really come together until over halfway through the book. All the prep for that collision is just too slow and dull.The characters are likable and things do pick up for the finale, but it leaves way too many loose ends. A sequel might actually be better if it can dispense with all the minutia of world building and character introductions and simply get to some adventuring. Or maybe just spin the adorable coyote sisters off into their own book, and let them have all the fun they want to have.
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LibraryThing member quondame
Oli the cottonmouth spirit person in the Reflecting World and Nina is a Lipan girl from South Texas and each are dealing with issues specific to their heritage and location and in each case their connection will lead them to meet and cooperate. A well told tale with intriguingly new twists on
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familiar elements and for very much the most part likable characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member ladycato
I checked this out from my local library. This is currently a Norton Award finalist.
I loved Darcie Little Badger's book Elatsoe last year, and I loved A Snake Falls to Earth as well. The two books are quite different, but both draw on Little Badger's Lipan Apache heritage in a beautiful way. Here,
I loved Darcie Little Badger's book Elatsoe last year, and I loved A Snake Falls to Earth as well. The two books are quite different, but both draw on Little Badger's Lipan Apache heritage in a beautiful way. Here,
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the story switches back and forth between Nina, a Texas-born teenager on Earth who is striving to preserve and understand her family's stories, and Olie, a two-bodied cottonmouth snake in the land of spirits who needs to save a beloved friend from a fatal condition. The two perspectives come together in a way that is both fun and powerful as the book explores the importance of storytelling and families, both found and of like blood. This well deserves its place as a Norton finalist. Show Less
LibraryThing member electrascaife
Nina is of Lipan Apache descent and wants badly to understand her people's past by translating her great-grandmother's old stories. Oli is from the world of that mythology, striking out on his own. The two meet when their worlds clash.
Meh. By all rights I should have loved this book, but instead I
Meh. By all rights I should have loved this book, but instead I
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found it an absolute slog. I think it's because NA mythology is my least favorite? And Nina's story just didn't grab me enough to look past the folktale element that I disliked. *shrug* Show Less
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
I really enjoyed this author's Elatsoe, which I read last year. This one follows to parallel narratives, animal people in a spirit realm and a human girl in ours, which over time converge. Some neat ideas, but the main (human) character never engaged me like Elatsoe did; she has some specific
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problems she is trying to solve, but for a YA novel, there was little sense of how she was supposed to be growing or developing as a character. (Also I had a hard time believing that in the 2020s a popular teen app would be called "st0ryte11er.") Show Less
LibraryThing member bookwren
I especially loved Oli and the Reflecting World, which seemed more human than our world.
LibraryThing member rmarcin
I read this as part of Big Library Read, otherwise I would not have read it. It is a YA fantasy book told through Nina and also a cottonmouth kid. They tell stories and see animals come to life.
Not my cup of tea, but I understand how the stories are important to a culture.
Not my cup of tea, but I understand how the stories are important to a culture.
LibraryThing member bell7
Nina learns a family story from her great-great grandmother, and realizes that there's something special about her long-lived Lipan Apache family. Her grandmother still lives on land that has been in the family for generations, though a new neighbor is making trouble for them. In the Reflecting
The story is set up very deliberately, starting when Nina is nine and working its way through the years and finally when the two stories intertwine - and of course, the title tells you they will, so it's not much of a spoiler to say that - the action really gets started. I liked seeing both Nina and Oli find their place in the world and stand up for their friends and family. The time is never specified, but it feels just a little bit in our future with Nina's use of her phone and private video diary, when climate change has impacted us enough that Texas gets hit with hurricanes regularly. It had the sort of quality of a magical tale that reminded me of the feel of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, even though the stories themselves were quite different.
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World, which used to be joined more directly to our world but now only has a few connecting points, a young cottonmouth animal person, Oli, sets out on his own and makes friends with a toad and coyote sisters.The story is set up very deliberately, starting when Nina is nine and working its way through the years and finally when the two stories intertwine - and of course, the title tells you they will, so it's not much of a spoiler to say that - the action really gets started. I liked seeing both Nina and Oli find their place in the world and stand up for their friends and family. The time is never specified, but it feels just a little bit in our future with Nina's use of her phone and private video diary, when climate change has impacted us enough that Texas gets hit with hurricanes regularly. It had the sort of quality of a magical tale that reminded me of the feel of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt, even though the stories themselves were quite different.
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LibraryThing member ewyatt
The moves between Mia and Ollie. There's a hurricane moving toward Mia's grandmother's home. Her abuela has noticed she can't go far from home without her health suffering. People who live on the family homestead live a LONG time. Ollie is a young cottonmouth snake who has the ability to have an
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animal and human form. He's gently kicked out from the family home to live on his own. He builds his own family. And when his best friend, Ami, is sick with extinction. He has to go to the human world to try to save his life. The stories intertwine. The characters are ones I rooted for, and I really liked when the stories intersected. A satisfying audiobook Show Less
LibraryThing member RandyMorgan
Nina dedicates a lot of her time to recording the beliefs of Apache’s and translating the oral story from her great grandmother. Oli is a newly independent animal person and on a journey of self-discovery in the reflecting world. When one of Oli’s friends becomes ill, Oli journeys to Earth for
Darcie reinvents Lapin Apache oral traditions to reflect modern times. I like how Darcie touches on some native history and indigenous language. A Snake Falls to Earth has the potential to be an incurable audio book, but the structure is just barely short of a traditional oral story. Though the potential is there, the narrators were inconsistent.
A Snake Falls to Earth touches on topics of: global warming, endangered species, social media, and LGBTQIA+.
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a cure. Together, Nina and Oli work to protect the people they love.Darcie reinvents Lapin Apache oral traditions to reflect modern times. I like how Darcie touches on some native history and indigenous language. A Snake Falls to Earth has the potential to be an incurable audio book, but the structure is just barely short of a traditional oral story. Though the potential is there, the narrators were inconsistent.
A Snake Falls to Earth touches on topics of: global warming, endangered species, social media, and LGBTQIA+.
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ISBN
1646140923 / 9781646140923