”Chickadee”

By Louise Erdrich. Ages 8 to 12.

What would it feel like to be an 8-year-old boy suddenly separated from your family?

The scariness of the situation is clear and immediate in “Chickadee,” which is set in 1866 in the territory that is now Minnesota. The story brings readers into the thoughts of a Native American boy named Chickadee; his twin brother, Makoons (“Little Bear”); and many of the family members who go in search of the kidnapped boy.

“Chickadee” is the fourth novel in the series that Louise Erdrich started with “The Birchbark House,” but you don’t need to have read any of the previous books to follow the adventures here. (In case you have, though, the young girl in “The Birchbark House” has grown up to be the twins’ mother.)

At the start of the story, Chickadee and Makoons are mischievous boys who are attuned to the natural world and aware of some of the dangers their family faces every day. They are also happily immersed in the stories of their ancestors.

When a mean-spirited elder calls Chickadee weak and scrawny “like his namesake,” the boy, of course, gets upset. His great-grandmother praises the cheerful, brave Chickadee and assures the boy that “small things have great power.”

From the time he is taken away, Chickadee comes across new sights, sounds and smells. (The worst smell might be in the cabin where his kidnappers live.) That Chickadee will survive his ordeal seems likely. It’s his strong ties to his brother, family and ancestral history and to nature that help him along and make for a powerful story.