Summerland (novel)

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**Title** **Summerland**

Author	Michael Chabon
Cover artist	William Joyce
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Miramax (part of Hyperion)
Released	September 17, 2002
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD
Pages	500 pp (hardcover edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-7868-0877-2 (hardcover edition)

Summerland is a 2002 fantasy young adult novel by American writer Michael Chabon. It is about young children who save the world from destruction by playing baseball, the central theme and symbol throughout the novel. Often touted as a Native American version of The Chronicles of Narnia, Summerland weaves elements of a World Series, parallel-universe road trip, and a hero's odyssey.

[edit] Plot summary

The story starts off on a small island off the coast of Washington called Clam Island. There, an eleven year old boy named Ethan plays baseball but does not acquire good baseball skills. He encounters a gracious werefox, Cutbelly, who explains the Lodgepole to the ignorant Ethan. Cutbelly explains that there is a life form known as Coyote whose plan is to end the Lodgepole, which would take place soon. He takes Ethan to the Summerlands where they meet small Indian looking people called ferishers. Ethan’s dad got captured by Coyote as well as Cutbelly in a melee. Ethan assembles a small group of a ferisher clan leader, Cinquefoil, and two friends from baseball, Thor and Jennifer T., to go out and find Ethan’s dad and save the world with bravado. Coyote would end the world by poisoning the water that keeps the tree alive. They have many adventures, accumulate intimate friends who give them assurance, and play baseball, the game of worlds; with the hope they will stop Coyote and end the fiasco.

[edit] Setting

The setting of the book Summerland is anomalous. It is explained by a character in the genesis of the novel that there is not one world but four worlds. Earth and the universe as most humans know it is only one world, the Middling. The true universe is a giant tree. On the tree are four branches, which are the four worlds; the Summerlands, the bleak Winterlands, and the Gleaming are the other worlds. These break up into smaller and smaller branches until they hit leaves, which are places. There are many places on the tree where the branches touch each other. Certain beings that are Shadowtails can move along these crossings. The tree is referred to as the Lodgepole. The passive creatures in the Gleaming are sedentary because of Coyote. Coyote put closed the Gleaming with a shield so creatures can’t leave or go to the Gleaming. The Gleaming is obscure to most beings.