Everybody reacts the same way to A+J and they tell their story so often it is like Groundhog Day turned into a novel. Ayla and Jondalar never stay, though Ayla really wants to stop travelling. The flathead discrimination always dissolves before it can be an issue. They travel, observe animals and the landscape, they meet people, people realize how awesome Ayla is and want to adopt her and Jondalar. The problem with the book, besides contrived and stupid drama that occasionally bubbles up btw the happy couple, is that it is slow slow slow. Phew! Oh no – now Jondalar thinks he is not man enough to make a baby with Ayla, but she can’t tell him about her medicine because of reasons. Also, what if Ayla gets pregnant? Oh wait, of course she knows what plants to eat to avoid pregnancy. Flatheads, of course, are Neanderthals – the people who raised Ayla when she was abandoned as a child. Reaching the glacier is the main source of tension of the novel, coupled with the fact that people might not welcome Ayla and Jondalar with their flathead-friendly ways and their scary abilities to ride horses and tame animals. staying in a comfortable cave until next winter with friends. This is really wonderful since they need to cross a glacier before spring! If they don’t get there in time, they might have to resort to…. Anyways, continuing with the synopsis, since Ayla and Jondalar are super, they have tamed horses, can heal all wounds with plants, and make great time. If an epic journey across ice-age Europe sounds like an interesting novel, look elsewhere or write your own. If you don’t understand what I just said, you are obviously not familiar with the series at all and should stop reading this review, since it is about book 5 in a long long series. Super-Cro Magnons Ayla and Jondalar leave their happy situation with the Mamutoi in quest of Jondalar’s people, the Zelandoni, which involves traveling all across prehistoric Europe. Yikes, this book was hard to get through.

The plains of passage book