The Roar of the Falls: My Journey with Kaya

The Roar of the Falls: My Journey with Kaya
The cover of Roar of the Falls
Kaya's Series
Published	2014
Author	Emma Carlson Berne
Illustrator	Juliana Kolesova Michael Dworkin
ISBN	1609584171
Setting	Early spring, 1764
In relation to Kaya's Series	Before the events of Meet Kaya

The Roar of the Falls: My Journey with Kaya is a My Journey Book that focuses on Kaya'aton'my.

Characters

• Kaya'aton'my
• Speaking Rain
• Eetsa
• Toe-ta
• Wing Feather and Sparrow
• Brown Deer
• Kautsa
• Bear Blanket
• Pi-lah-ka
• Raven
• Jumps Back
• Fox Tail

Only in The Roar of the Falls

• Rushing Brook
• Little Branch
• Squirrel
• Flaming Stick

Present Characters

• Protagonist: A girl who travels back into the past with an abalone shell she finds in the ground. She enjoys gardening and doing crafts, specifically weaving and beading. She struggles with being her garden group's leader, wondering if her gardening knowledge may have been why she was appointed to lead her group. She struggles with communication, most commonly with those she doesn't know very well. She also doesn't want to attend camp with Lily because of her shyness and hesitancy towards swimming in a lake. Her parents nicknamed her "Wheels" because of the determination she used when learning to ride a bicycle.
• Mom: Protagonist's mother. She advises the protagonist to practice talking to people she doesn't know, believing it's the only way she'll get better.
• Dad: Protagonist's father. He taught the protagonist how to ride a bike, promising her ice cream if she could ride one block without falling.
• Lily: Protagonist's best friend. She attempts to persuade the protagonist in attending camp with her, insisting she needs more adventures in her life.
• Greta: Protagonist's garden group member.
• Rachel: Protagonist's garden group member.
• Sarah: Protagonist's garden group member.
• Ms. Wallace: The supervisor for the protagonist's garden group. She appointed the protagonist as the leader for her group and offers to help if needed.

Opening and Potential Plot Events

The protagonist sits on her heels and looks around the garden plot, comparing the mess to her garden at home and wishing she could be transported there. She’s in a group with four other girls, working on a project to start a community garden for the food bank. The protagonist was excited until she was appointed as the leader (despite her lack of leadership skills), which may have been because of her knowledge of gardening. The project isn’t going well as Rachel and Sarah aren’t doing much work and Greta, at the other side of the patch, keeps poking tomato seedlings into shallow holes that are too close to the fence. The protagonist tries to explain the problem, but then gives up and walks away, feeling the garden won’t succeed because of the lack of teamwork and her poor leadership skills.

Ms. Wallace makes her way through the garden plots and approaches the protagonist’s plot, asking if they need any help. Despite wanting to ask for guidance, the protagonist just nods and Ms. Wallace walks away. She digs holes for the pepper plants and begins to relax. She sees that the tomato seedlings Greta had planted are falling out of their shallow holes, so she quietly digs a tomato plant deeper into the soil. She thinks about Lily’s suggestion on attending a two-week sleep away camp during the summer and showing her the camp’s website. Despite wanting to hang out with Lily and receiving permission from her parents, the protagonist is unsure about sleeping in a tent and participating in some of the other activities. Working another tomato plant into a deeper hole, her trowel hits something and she pulls out an abalone shell.

That night the protagonist is working in her garden and receives advice from her parents about leadership and determination. After showering and changing into her pajamas, the protagonist finds her abalone shell and examines it, noticing two little holes in the shell’s center. In her bedroom, she pulls out some thin hemp cord from her jewellery-making box and twines it through the shell and around the outside, weaving it into a zigzag. After she knotted the last strands and clipped them, she ties her new bracelet onto her wrist and traces a circle around the edge of the shell. She begins to spin quickly and, after the spinning stops, finds herself on the riverbank of the Columbia River. She notices that she’s wearing a buckskin dress and moccasins, and sees Native Americans in the distance. She stumbles and falls to her knees, but because she’d strayed too close to the edge, the ground gives way and she slips down the riverbank. Kaya (whom she doesn’t know it) grabs the protagonist’s arm and pulls her up onto the riverbank. Assuming the protagonist’s Nimíipuu, Kaya asks if her family’s camp is nearby. She then decides to take the protagonist to her camp and introduces herself. After Kaya leaves to fetch water, the protagonist ponders on her situation and decides to trace a circle around the shell, teleporting her back to her bedroom at the exact moment she left. Realizing she can travel back in time, and remembering the time she’d spent with Kaya, she teleports back to 1764 and sees Kaya running up the path.

After this opening, events vary according to choices made.

• The protagonist and Kaya wash up at a stream and visit Kaya's village, where the protagonist meets Eetsa and Kautsa and learns about. She's paid a visit by Bear Blanket and, after having her scrapes treated, rests in Kaya's tepee.
• The protagonist watches Speaking Rain weave a bag and decide to weave herself a necklace. After gathering salmon eggs for Eetsa and looking after Wing Feather and Sparrow, the girls can either help Bear Blanket paint a parfleche or practice playing shinny.
• The protagonist and Kaya assist in treating Little Branch's fever by gathering juniper for Bear Blanket. Encountering a bear on the trail, the protagonist can either run away or stay and obey Kaya's commands.
• The protagonist and Kaya attend a celebration feast and, after Kaya decides to trade her necklace, the protagonist can either offer her bracelet or the necklace she made earlier. Online endings include watching the Stick Game or participating in a horse race and placing second.
• The protagonist and Kaya ride bareback to the flatlands and assist Toe-ta with training the horses. After seeing Squirrel mistreat the horse he's training, the girls can either report him to Toe-ta or have Kaya confront him.
• The protagonist attempts to ride a horse, with Kaya leading it forward and the protagonist later riding by herself.
• The protagonist and Kaya get caught up in a raid and can either stay behind to help save a filly or run to the village and report the raid.

Regardless of the ending that is arrived at, the protagonist eventually returns to her own time using the bracelet, and returns at the exact moment she left. She makes proper goodbyes to Kaya and generally says she has to go back to her family (which Kaya believes are camping by the river). The protagonist returns with a new-found perspective of her life. This often includes lessons in leadership, courage and cooperation.