The young boy, Auki, wants to be a brave hunter like his father but he is not ready. So he goes on a journey to hunt the puma. But the puma comes and is now hunting auki. Auki happens to run into this cave of painted hands. Auki shows his bravery saving the man in the caves so the man repays him by painting his foot. Great for kids to show that you stand up for what you believe and protect others who cannof help themselves. ( )

Inspired by the Cave of Hands, in Argentina - "Cueva de las Manos" refers to a series of caverns whose walls were stenciled with numerous hand outlines some 10,000 years ago, presumably by the native people of Patagonia - author T.A. Barron spins the fictional tale of Auki, a young boy of the Tehuelche people who longs to become a hunter like his father. Rebuffed once again, when the season to hunt guanacos comes, Auki run off on his own, determined to prove himself. After a surprise encounter with a puma, the young boy finds himself injured, and stranded in the forbidden canyon, where the fabled cave of ghosts is located. Here he has an encounter with the elderly painter who guards the cave, and after another run-in with the puma, eventually learns the secret of the hands painted upon the cave wall...

Ghost Hands was quite the revelation! Not only did I enjoy the story for its own sake, immediately involved in Auki's quest to prove himself, I also found the book quite informative. I know very little about Patagonia, its people, past or present, or the folklore associated with it. I had never heard of the Cave of Hands - now that I have, it reminds me of France's Lascaux Caves, which also contain prehistoric artwork - nor did I know about the Tehuelche, the native people of Argentina who were (alas!) persecuted and hunted into extinction. I didn't know about the guanaco, a camelid species related to the llama and alpaca; I didn't know about calafate berries (which have their own distinct folklore); I didn't know about the tero bird; and I had never heard of Karut, the thunder god of the region. In short: I knew nothing, nothing at all about this part of the world, its history, its geography, and its culture, when I began the book. How fascinating it all seemed, reading T.A. Barron's foreword, and then his story. I'd love to track down a collection of legends and folklore from Patagonia, if such a thing has been published in English. Recommended to anyone with an interest in the Cave of Hands, and also recommended to those who have never heard of it before, but value a good story and find prehistory as fascinating as I do. ( )

A young boy, Auki, wanted to go hunting, but his dad said not yet because he was too young. Auki did not listen. He wanted to prove that he could, in fact, hunt. He hurt himself when he was disobeying his father, but he met this man that he saved with his hurt foot. The man brought him home. Later, the man went to get Auki to paint his foot in the cave. The painted hands and foot was to show all of the people who did courageous things for others. ( )

The author gives a little inside of the culture of the Argentinian, Tehuelche tribe and his inspiration of the Patagonia’s cave of the hands. The story begins with a boy named Auki which means little hunter. He tells his story of him wanting to go hunting with his father, but he is still to young to face the wild including, that of the puma. Auki gets upset because year after year its the same story, until next year. Because of this he decides to go out for himself and study the lurking of the puma to show that he could defeat the puma himself, however when fronted by the puma he is startled and falls into a pile of rocks where he hurts his foot. As he brushes off, he notices a cave filled with different colored hands that someone has placed, but who? As he walks closer he sees a man and the man warns him to go away, but Auki keeps questioning why he paints the hands. As he is about to leave he notices that the old man is confronted by the puma and he doesn’t know what to do. So Auki goes and try to scare off the puma, but all he remembers is hitting the puma with his injured foot and the swaying of the old man as he carried Auki to the cave. There the old man takes care of him and awards him b telling him the story as to why he paints the hands on the cave. He then awards Auki by painting his foot on the cave for saving the old mans life and showing leadership.

This book teaches young youth to have patience and you might learn from your elders ( )