When a 15 year old Indian boy named True Son embarrasses his father Cuyloga for the last time, he is left at a white man council house to be taken to a white family. True Son is told along the way by a white guard called Del, short for Delaware, that he is actually white. Cuyloga had adopted him from a white family when he was very young to take the place of his dead son. True Son doesn’t believe what he is told and thinks he is a born indian of the Lenni Lenape tribes. True Son can’t believe he is the son of white people who he was taught to hate since he could remember. From what he had known, the whites were an evil and young race of the earth that would rather work and keep themselves cooped up in their houses rather than enjoy the beautiful land and qualities of nature. As True Son considered all of this, including the fact that the white man would trick and kill indians to get anything they wanted for their own. This caused much hatred towards the white people in which he was soon to meet and be forced to live with for the rest of his life.

So why was True Son never told he was white, and what would his real family be like? In this book True son goes on a journey to find his inner self and the false assumptions of prejudice. The things he discovers make him a better person and change him forever. The author of “THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST”, Conrad Richter writes in great descriptive detail of the surrounding nature and items in the story. The author also uses the concepts of flashback and point of view to allow the reader to see and imagine what True Son is seeing, feeling and remembering. Each of these literary elements help the reader have a much better understanding of what is going on throughout the story.

The main Theme of the book is to not judge things so quickly. You have to give everything a chance because you may like whatever it is after all. Other themes are to realize the true beauty and elements of nature, also to be grateful for what you have. Because a lot of people don’t know how good something is until they have lost it. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys the outdoors, values life, family and likes a good dialogue as well as some action every once in a while to keep themselves interested in reading. Overall this is a great book for anyone in 8th to 12th grade, interested in the following. And it deserves to be brought back into teen readers hands.