Book description
Ben and Charity Muldoon are 15-year-old twins who find themselves in
the midst of politically charged events in the Saskatchewan River
Valley in 1885. One day, as Ben is walking through a ravine, he
encounters a Cree boy named Red Eagle, who quickly becomes his friend
after a hair-raising rescue.
Ben eventually discovers that a confrontation between the North-West
Mounted Police and the Natives, led by Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont,
is imminent. As events unfold, Ben and Red Eagle witness the struggles
of the Metis and Cree for recognition and the failed efforts to
negotiate a settlement that ultimately lead to tragedy and war. Caught
between his loyalty to Red Eagle and the authority of a Hudson's Bay
Company uncle he has never trusted, Ben must decide where his
allegiance lies. But as he soon learns, when it comes to friendship,
there is no taking sides.
B. J. Bayle's Battle Cry at Batoche was a Canadian
Children's Book Centre Our Choice, while Perilous Passage,
about explorer and mapmaker David Thompson, was nominated for a Red
Maple Award. Also the author of Shadow Riders, about the RCMP's
early history, she lives in Cochrane, Alberta.
