Seekers (novel series)

Seekers

The cover of The Quest Begins
The Quest Begins Great Bear Lake Smoke Mountain The Last Wilderness
Author	Erin Hunter
Cover artist	Wayne McLoughlin
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Teen literature, fantasy
Publisher	HarperCollin
Published	May 2008 – present
Media type	Print

Seekers is a children's novel series published under the pseudonym of Erin Hunter, written the same team of authors who created the Warriors series. It revolves around three young bear cubs, Kallik (a polar bear), Lusa (a black bear), and Toklo (a grizzly bear), when they lose their mothers and are left to fend for themselves. Each determined to survive in the harsh wilderness, they find themselves brought together by a perilous journey guided by a shape-shifting grizzly cub whose destiny will affect them all. Fate is about to change these bears' lives forever, bringing them amazing adventures, unexpected suffering, and finally setting their paws on a path toward a future they cannot yet imagine...

The first book of the series, The Quest Begins, was written by Tui Sutherland and published on May 27, 2008. Great Bear Lake, the second of the series, was written by Cherith Baldry, and was released on February 10, 2009[1].

Overview

The books follow the adventures of three North American bears - Lusa the black bear, Toklo the grizzly, and Kallik the polar bear - who later meet a fourth bear, a grizzly cub by the name of Ujurak, and help him make a long and difficult journey to the deepest Arctic where he will learn the true nature of his destiny.

After a series of extraordinary events bring all four bears together, they set out on a long and dangerous journey, in order to discover something vitally important, not just for themselves, but for every one of their species. The books are set a little way into the future, where the lives of all wild animals have been severely compromised by human encroachment on their habitat and natural sources of food. All these three kinds of bears have forgotten how to be truly "wild", which is a lesson they must learn as they travel from their birth-dens to help their very special companion.

Books

The Quest Begins

Something is very wrong in the natural world. Animals and humans battle against harsh winters, scorching summers, and violent storms. As their territory diminishes, the bears lose their way and when spring arrives, the thin and hungry bears have to fight for every mouthful of food.

In the night skies, the star animals revolve around the Pathway Star, the one still point in the whirling skies. It brings together three bears from different species, each with a tale of extreme hardship. Kallik has lived her life on the ice with her mother and brother. Lusa has never left the zoo where she was born. And Toklo roams the forest with his mother and younger brother, who has always been ill.

Suddenly separated from those who have always cared for them, these three bears are learning to survive in the wild. With the bear-shaman Ujurak, the bears embark on a long and dangerous quest. They travel through magnificent and often hostile landscapes to the frozen north, where the swirling lights of the Aurora Borealis guide the bears to their journey’s end beyond the stars.

Great Bear Lake

Three young bear cubs—Lusa, a black bear; Kallik, a polar bear; and Toklo, a grizzly bear—and a mysterious changeling bear have each been following a path toward a mystical destination. One by one the bears have joined together, and all four are finally united at the sacred Great Bear Lake, a place of peace and healing.

But danger lurks ahead, and the young bears must put aside their differences and find a way to come together if they are to have any chance of surviving the harsh realities of the wild…

Destiny has brought them together. . . .

Young black bear Lusa has left the comfort of the zoo, determined against all odds to make her way in the wild. It is there that she encounters grizzly cub Toklo and a mysterious changeling named Ujurak. Once united, the cubs find themselves on a journey toward a mystical place—if only they knew where.

Meanwhile, separated from her family, polar bear cub Kallik trusts her intuition to lead her on a path traveled by many bears before her. At last the four cubs meet at the sacred Great Bear Lake, a place of peace and healing where bears gather to cele brate the longest day.

But all is not harmonious. Danger lurks beneath the calm surface of the lake, and only if they put aside their differences and truly come together will the young bears have any chance of surviving the harsh realities of the wild.

"Great Bear Lake" continues the story of Kallik, Lusa, Toklo, and Ujurak as the bear cubs try to find their way to the Arctic. At the end of the book, Kallik joins the other bear cubs along with her brother.

Smoke Mountain

It is confirmed that the third book in the Seekers series is titled Smoke Mountain. The cover for Smoke Mountain can be seen on Tui Sutherland's blog. It is said to be released on May 12, 2009.

The Last Wilderness

It has been confirmed in a recent Author Tracker letter that the fourth book in the Seekers series is titled "The Last Wilderness". It is said to be released on January 27, 2010.

Fire in the Sky

The fifth book's title has been confirmed on the amazon.ca website.

Sea of Chaos

The sixth and final book in the series, has been confirmed in a recent author tracker email and will be titled, "Sea of Chaos".

Characters

• Kallik – Kallik is a female polar bear, who is forced to leave her home with her mother, Nisa, and brother, Taqqiq, when the ice begins to melt. Like all other polar bears, she depends on her mother to teach her how to hunt and survive until she is old enough to do it on her own. Her brother Taqqiq is her favorite playmate, but he is restless and has trouble paying attention. Kallik is a good learner, and is anxious to know the secrets her mother has to impart. However, her anxiety can sometimes take her over and cause her to worry or be afraid of things like burn-sky (summer), when the ice will melt and the polar bears will go hungry. Then, one day, when Kallik and her family are traveling to land (the place where polar bears go in burn-sky), Nisa and Kallik get attacked by orca whales. They end up killing Nisa, but Kallik escapes and is limited to doing nothing but listen to Taqqiq wander away. Now, Kallik is alone, and she must depend on herself to survive.

• Lusa – Lusa is a female black bear and is the only cub in her family, but lives with an extra bear named Yogi who she loves and hates as a brother. Her father, King, used to live in the wild but doesn't like to share stories about his experience because he guarantees that she will never live in the wild as long as she lives. She starts living in what she calls a "Bear Bowl" (the zoo) and has never seen any animal, other than a few birds and bears. Lusa is very anxious and loves to learn, So she always asks Stella, an adult black bear who came from another zoo, many questions. Stella is like a mother to Lusa. She tells her stories and encourages her to do what she wants to do. So does her real mother, Ashia. Later in the story, Toklo's mother, Oka, arrives in the zoo. Lusa, curious, comes up to Oka and sees that Oka was muttering things like "Tobi" and "Toklo". Then, Lusa learns that "Tobi" and "Toklo" are Oka's cubs. Oka tells Lusa that she had left her cub, Toklo, alone, and that she had regretted it deeply ever since. Oka was not sure that Toklo was still alive or not. Lusa promises Oka that he still is, and she will find him. Lusa escapes the zoo and finds Toklo at the end of the first book.

• Toklo - Toklo is a very young male grizzly bear cub who lives with his mother, Oka, and his brother, Tobi. Tobi is very sick, so Oka is afraid of going anywhere because she doesn't want Tobi to suffer even more. Sometimes, Oka pays so much attention on Tobi, that she doesn't notice Toklo. Toklo is tired of Tobi moaning and slowing them down when they are trying to find food. At last, Oka decides that it is time for them to travel up a mountian to a river filled with salmon. But on the way there, Tobi dies. Oka's heart is broken, and it takes a while for them to keep going. And when they do reach the river, Oka gets furious with another bear, Shoteka, whom is trying to kill Toklo. She stops him, and then abandons Toklo, saying that she doesn't want to see another one of her cubs die. Now that Toklo is on his own, he needs to find his own food and his own place to live. He eventually meets another cub, Ujurak, who is also alone and can change in to any other animal. Suddenly, the two of them are on a perilous journey to a safe and wonderous place.

• Ujurak* - Ujurak is a small male grizzly cub who has a mysterious ability to morph into any animal, though he can't control when and what he changes into well. For example, one time Ujurak unexpectingly turned into a salmon along a body of water where bears were. Luckily he had met Toklo, another grizzly bear, whom made sure he wasn't caught and eaten. However, whether he turnes into a useful animal or not, each time he morphs, he can see the world from that animal's point of view. He lost his mother rather early in his life and lives alone on a journey to the place where spirits dance in the sky in order to find out about his destiny. He has gotten Toklo to accompany him in his quest, and therefore the two began a long and dangerous journey.