William Maxwell

The First Hero William Maxwell

The First Hero is history fiction for children ages 10 to 18 and details how humankind's first inventions came about. The story element is the universal story of heroes seeking to live in a healthier environment, less despotism, more respect. Perils abound in each enviornment, but these children conquer each. This heroic family begins their journey from a steamy rain forest in what is now Nigeria, moves to a savannah with very different animals and dangers; moves on to a safer mountain where the reader meets three generations of the pioneers of all human cultures and civilizations. For centuries, opinion leaders, including popular movies and news stories, have presented nearly all of Africa in an unfavorable light. The effects of such myths are profound, justifying colonialism, slavery, economic exploitation, and even stimulating racist theories. This book looks at Africans of 190,000 years ago with huge admiration and invites the readers to re-think the stereotypes they absorbed from biased sources. Heroism is a trait that lies in all humans as a potential. That nobel quality blossoms frequently and sometimes insistently, but not always. The early history of the first truly human family is told by the bravest daughter/sister, Venus. The reader meets her and her grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews at humankind's first fireside. Venus tells how the family escape the control of an Alpha Male, the childrens great grandfather, by fleeing to the savannah. In the savannah the family meets new kinds of threats, including the most powerful master of the savannah, the soon-to-be-made extinct Giant Brown Bear. One memberr of that fearsome species eats the children's mother, rendering all six orphans. Grief is so profound that Venus invents humankind's first articulate word, am'mah (mother). The challenge of living in a cooler climate generates new inventions, beginning with the kaftan. The first music, the first raft, the first organized war party, the first celebratory dance are but a few of the amazing inventions that this heroic family creates to start humankind on the long and difficult path from primate culture to truly human culture. The oldest son, soon named "Torchbearer," connects the pre-puberty family to the transcendental and begins to enforce necessary rules for the healthy survival of his family. The reader is drawn into the story by realistic depictions of what dangers and challenges our brave ancestors conquered.