The Crystal Drop

At one time I worked at the provincial museum of Alberta and some time afterwards this book was recommended to me because it mentions Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site, one of the museums in the network. Naturally, I had to read it. That was in the mid-90s. I enjoyed it at that time and this summer when we began to experience some of the drought and heatwave conditions Hughes wrote about, I decided to read it again.

Published in 1993, the story is set in 2011 in Alberta where a teenage girl and her younger brother are orphaned when their mother died in childbirth. They have no other family except an uncle near the British Columbia border. Climate change has brought many changes, drought, heat, lack of services. The farm is show more desolate and they have been living on gophers and weeds. After burying their mother and the baby in the dust of the river bed they have no option but to set off on foot to find their uncle. One of the first places they come to is a strange and beautiful building that has been taken over by four young men from the Peigan tribe. Although threatening and scary, they help to some extent and provide some information about what turns out to be a famous museum. The pair continue their risky journey, were attacked by survivalists and spent a frightening night surrounded by hungry coyotes, among other near-death experiences. What was shocking but completely believable was that rich and poor were further apart than ever. The rich had green landscapes, unlimited clear water thanks to river damming, and were prepared to protect that vigorously from the poor who had nothing.

This YA book is important because it describes what can happen if we continue to abuse the planet. Setting the story in 2011 may have seemed like a possibility in 1993 but fortunately we've been given a grace period and Hughes' landscape is still in the future. When I read it in the 90s it seemed unlikely to happen in my lifetime but since experiencing the 2021 heat dome of western Canada it was more believable and I enjoyed it even more. Highly recommended. show less

Hard to tell for sure how old these kids are, but clues about second grade and Ian being ten make me think Megan is 16. In any case, I'm a little disturbed by the implausibility of it all, how they knew all this survival stuff like skinning gophers & getting out of quicksand etc. I guess post-apocalyptic adventure just isn't really my thing. I would have thought other kids would have liked it more though. Well, I really did like the episode at Buffalo Jump and the characters there, so an extra star for that eerie mystery & character study.