Mary Alexander Walker

In the eighth century, Scathach, the ancient shape-shifting female champion, appears to Maeve Moira, the daughter of a Celtic High King, and, pleased with her character, promises that her daughters--and the daughters of their daughters--will survive and possess Maeve's qualities.

Moving from Louisiana to California in her senior year is a difficult enough transition for Azure, but she must also work in the school cafeteria run by her strong-willed grandmother.

In 1784 a young black boy, disgusted by his mother's dependence on the local voodoo priest, leaves the Louisiana swamps where they live and goes to New Orleans where he eventually gains the knowledge to help improve his life and that of his people.

The high school boy who arrives to spend a year as a boarder with fourteen-year-old Rose's Iowa farm family ultimately becomes part of that family, changing Rose's life and blooming into a maturity that wipes out his past.