Patricia Clark

Patricia Nikolina Clark has a passion for prehistory. It stems from a longing to go back to a simpler
time as well as a longing to know what our ancient ancestors knew about living close to nature. But
there are no time machines in this life, except in our minds. Clark imagined what daily life must have
been like for the hunters and gatherers of the Ice Age, based on archaeological evidence and current
research. She had the good fortune to attend an excavation of Clovis artifacts near her home in
Washington State, where she held a stone point once held by a Clovis hunter 12,000 years ago. After
that experience, the story idea came to her for In the Shadow of the Mammoth. “There is great
power in artifacts,” says Clark.

Ms. Clark’s short stories and articles have appeared in children’s magazines for many years. This is her
first novel for middle-grade readers.