White Mist

This novel depends on time travel to enable the heroine, May-Apple, and the hero, Lee, to bring us a warning from the past: “If we destroy the earth, we destroy ourselves.”

There are many good things in this book; the characters are very well drawn, the settings are vividly described, and many historical facts are naturally brought in. The warning from the past is emphasized by the fate of the buried city (Singapore, Michigan), which was covered with sands unleashed by indiscriminate logging. Unfortunately, the plot does not work, relying as it does on the white mist of the title (part of the time travel mechanism). The mist appears several times without explanation and is finally revealed as the wind-stirred hair of a long-dead Indian chief. Although all the Indians are very good, most of the whites are pretty bad. In the last chapter, a group is formed to try to fight the pollution; May reveals her origins, discovered in time travel, to her adoptive parents; and Lee lectures the new group, the Environmentalists, on the implemen-tation of the Indian Removal Act. Too much for four and a half pages. Despite these serious flaws, the book is redeemed by the description of the many fine qualities of the Potawatomi people, and their chief, Leopold Pokagon — sure to give courage and pride to anyone who is of Indian heritage.