In the third volume featuring Omakayas, the Ojibwe girl is twelve years old and embarking on a journey with her family in the year 1852. Forced from their home on what is now known as Madeline Island, they travel by canoe along the shore of Lake Superior through the rivers of Northern Minnesota in search of a new home. In an exciting opening chapter, Omakayas and her brother Pinch are swept away by the rapids and assumed dead. Unable to resist the opportunity to make mischief, the pair walk into a grieving camp masquerading as their own spirits, triggering a stunned response which quickly turns to a mixture of relief and reproach. During the course of the year Omakayas experiences personal and physical maturity, and is recognized as a woman. As in her earlier books in the series , The Birchbark House (Hyperion, 1999), and The Game of Silence (HarperCollins, 2005), Ms. Erdrich crafts a seamless story of family, community, and place, encompassing humor, tragedy, and everyday life, all viewed through a child’s experience. (Ages 8–12)

Here follows the story of a most extraordinary year in the life of an Ojibwe family and of a girl named "Omakayas," or Little Frog, who lived a year of flight and adventure, pain and joy, in 1852.

When Omakayas is twelve winters old, she and her family set off on a harrowing journey. They travel by canoe westward from the shores of Lake Superior along the rivers of northern Minnesota, in search of a new home. While the family has prepared well, unexpected danger, enemies, and hardships will push them to the brink of survival. Omakayas continues to learn from the land and the spirits around her, and she discovers that no matter where she is, or how she is living, she has the one thing she needs to carry her through.

Richly imagined, full of laughter and sorrow, The Porcupine Year continues Louise Erdrich's celebrated series, which began with The Birchbark House, a National Book Award finalist, and continued with The Game of Silence, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction.