Bridge of the Gods

Twelve year-old Chloe Ashton is an only child living in the remote wilderness of Oregon. She spends her days happily exploring the forests around her home, and is astonished when the forest creatures seem to begin to recognize her, follow her, and even to communicate with her. When a family tragedy results in Chloe being abducted and sold to the vagabonds who live deep in the woods, she discovers just how much the animals know. Finding help in the most unexpected places, Chloe learns the old legends are true— animals can talk, mountains do think, and deep in the forests, the trees still practice their old ways—and she struggles to survive, even as a new evil rises in the land. Set at a time when technology first arrived in the West, Bridge of the Gods is a book about the transformative power of nature, finding friendship in the darkest of places, and using an ancient, natural magic to find your way home.

Author: Diane Rios

Publication Date: August 15, 2017

Categories: Award-Winning, Fall 2017, Young Adult

Description
About the Author

Description

2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards: Silver, Pre-Teen Fiction – Fantasy
2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist in Children’s Fiction
2018 Oregon Book Award Finalist in Children’s Literature
2018 Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle-Grade Readers Shortlist

“Diane Rios is as gifted a storyteller as she is an artist. Her tales hearken back to a bygone era while still feeling both relevant and fresh.”
―Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay and Leave Me

“This middle-grade debut finds an audacious child ― with a knack for bonding with animals ― thrown into peril by her scheming uncle. In this appealing novel, Rios writes with an abiding love of nature, illustrating in scene after scene the power people may draw from it…An engaging adventure that shows the strength that can be discovered amid tragedy.”
―Kirkus Reviews

“Author Diane Rios has created a world that is both perfectly natural and slightly magical. With mystery, poetic descriptions of nature, talking animals, and bravery, Bridge of the Gods is the powerful and inspiring tale of a young girl in rustic Oregon who, just at the moment she needs help the most, discovers that she is just a little bit special.”
―Bill Zeman, author of Tiny Art Director

About the Author

Diane Rios lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, Greg, and rescued Labrador, Faye. As a child she spent several years on the road with artisan parents, selling their crafts out of a wooden house truck. Those years on the road gave her the experience of living in the woods of Oregon, drinking from streams and washing in rivers, and learning how to build a good fire by the age of eight. She is also a Francophile; she received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in French, lived for a year in France as a student, and worked for three years in the French section at Powell’s City of Books. In 2006 she was published as illustrator for Gayle Forman’s travelogue You Can’t Get there From Here on Rodale Press, and in 2012 she wrote and illustrated her first picture book, Dizzy’s Dream, available at Blurb.com. Bridge of the Gods is her first novel.