"Omakayas was no longer a little girl. She was that creature somewhere between a child and a woman ... a girl who'd come to know something of her strength and who wanted challenge." --From The Porcupine Year In the third book of her captivating series, Louise Erdrich continues the remarkable story of Omakayas, a young Ojibwe girl living in the mid-1800s. Omakayas and her family are on the move as white settlers force them west. It's a harrowing journey that pushes the family to the brink of survival.     Richly imagined, The Porcupine Year completes the trilogy based on the life of Omakayas, 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. Another trilogy, about Omakayas's children, and a final trilogy, about her grandchildren, will complete the powerful series that is based on Louise Erdrich's own family history. Charming black-and-white illustrations by the author bring this amazing family vividly to life.