Earth's Children - a 5 book series

I never thought in a million years that I would read these books. I have always known of their existence. They have a permanent resting place on the living room bookshelf at my grandma's house. She has followed the entire series. My mother is also a fan, although she has only read the first three.

As a child I remember seeing the second volume, The Valley of the Horses, desperately wanting to read it. At the time I was a huge fan of horses. When I asked to read them I was told I had to wait until I was older, and for good reason.

This past new year's day I was "trapped" at my grandma's house waiting for my husband, brother, cousin, or anyone my age to rescue me from an afternoon with the 80 and over crowd. I was tired and slightly hung over from the night before and didn't have anything to help me pass the next few hours. I decided to start reading to pass the time.

I was quickly drawn into the story. The series is a historical fiction novel about a Cro-Magnon little girl who is orphaned after an earthquake and is adopted by a clan of Neanderthals. She lives with the clan throughout her adolescence and eventually strikes out on her own to find others like herself. Jean M. Auel uses her novel to not only tell the fictional story of the young woman struggling to fit in and learn about her own kind, but to also paint a picture of the physical landscape of Eastern Europe from 30,000-15,000 years ago.

The series as a whole sheds light on Neanderthal culture, human survival, invention, communication, cultural differences and understanding, and human human nature at its most basic and complex levels.

I cannot wait for the final installment to be released. The date has yet to be announced.