Rating: 
Summary: Very Gruesome!
Review: a drought has plagued Balam's Mayan city- in an attempt to save his people, Balam sacrifices a jaguar to please the gods. But it is not enough; will Balam make an extreme sacrifice? This was an interesting book. It had some nasty things in it. There are some adult jokes in it that some kids won't understand. A bit too gruesome to be a children's book.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling fiction backed by cultural research.
Review: Balam on the verge of manhood in his ancient Mayan village fulfills his destiny in increasingly drastic efforts to end a big drought. Compelling fiction backed by solid cultural and archeological reserach provides an understanding of Myan culture and why Balam is honored to participate in the ultimate sacrifice.
Rating:
Summary: Heart of a Jaguar Book Report
Review: Have you ever been through an extreme drought? Or wrestled
with a jaguar? If not you should read, Heart of a Jaguar. Writing this story Marc Talbert vividly describes Maya going through a difficult time in their civilization. The problem was, Lack of rain.Crys rang out from among the camp.
A baby was being born, twin infact. Balam does not remember this
day, but his father has told him about it many times. The day when his mom died giving birth to him and his brother who also died. His father is married again, and Balam is now 14. He is a boy who is longing to become a man. Giving up playing with the little boys, he hopes that the bachelors will recognize he is no longer a kid, and will allow him to come and live with them in the baclelors hut.Falling in love with a girl named Ixbacal, he is forever watching her. He knows that he is going to marry her. Suddenly his dreams are shattered when Ixbacal is kidnapped by an enemy while she was going to the cenote. Later they find out that she was sacrificed to there gods. Balam immediately fell apart. Longing to become a man, he followed the bachelors into the woods. They were going to spy. Quietly and cautiously, he
followed them. Then all of a sudden they got out of site. Where did they go? Balam was scared, he was now lost in the wood alone. While standing there he heard a noise which startled him. Looking around, he spotted a viscous jaguar. Castings his spear the jaguar died. After killing it, he then got the pelt and the heart and wandered back home. Walking up to the camp, he removed the pelt from his head. In doing so, the little white bead which
symbolized he was a child was ripped off. Back at camp the
leaders were deciding who to sacrifice, they chose Balam. Balam
was to fast for ten days to purify himself. On the tenth day Balam was sacrificed to the gods for rain. Reading this book, you would go back in time and experience the Mayan civilization first hand going through an extreme drought. Although the ending was different, surely many would enjoy this book. You should defiantly read Heart of a Jaguar if you were studding Maya.
Rating:
Summary: Heart of a Jaguar Book Report
Review: Have you ever been through an extreme drought? Or wrestled with a jaguar? If not you should read, Heart of a Jaguar. Writing this story Marc Talbert vividly describes Maya going through a difficult time in their civilization. The problem was, Lack of rain. Crys rang out from among the camp.
A baby was being born, twin infact. Balam does not remember this day, but his father has told him about it many times. The day when his mom died giving birth to him and his brother who also died. His father is married again, and Balam is now 14. He is a boy who is longing to become a man. Giving up playing with the little boys, he hopes that the bachelors will recognize he is no longer a kid, and will allow him to come and live with them in the bachelors hut Falling in love with a girl named Ixbacal, he is forever watching her. He knows that he is going to marry her. Suddenly his dreams are shattered when Ixbacal is kidnapped by an enemy while she was going to the cenote. Later they find out that she was sacrificed to there gods. Balam immediately fell apart. Longing to become a man, he followed the bachelors into the woods. They were going to spy. Quietly and cautiously, he followed them. Then all of a sudden they got out of site. Where did they go? Balam was scared, he was now lost in the wood alone. While standing there he heard a noise which startled him. Looking around, he spotted a viscous jaguar. Castings his spear the jaguar died. After killing it, he then got the pelt and the heart and wandered back home. Walking up to the camp, he removed the pelt from his head. In doing so, the little white bead which symbolized he was a child was ripped off. Back at camp the leaders were deciding who to sacrifice, they chose Balam. Balam was to fast for ten days to purify himself. On the tenth day Balam was sacrificed to the gods for rain. Reading this book, you would go back in time and experience the Mayan civilization first hand going through an extreme drought. Although the ending was different, surely many would enjoy this book. You should defiantly read Heart of a Jaguar if you were studding Maya.
Rating: 
Summary: A nasty book
Review: Heart of a Jagaur is about a boy named Balam who lives in a Mayan village close to Chichen Itza. He is 14 years old, and really wants to become a man and live in the bachelor house.
I gave this book two stars out of five stars because it was a really gory book that was way too desriptive. It teaches you about the Mayas, but the author really didn't have to describe a person reaching into a jaguar and taking out its heart! (Like it did.) Overall it was a bad book (in my opinion) and I recommend you never read it unless you like gory, descriptive books.
Rating:
Summary: Heart of a Jaguar Report
Review: Heart of a jaguar based on the ancient Maya vividly describes the day to day life of a fourteen-year-old boy. As typically is the case with books from this time period, the characters are seemingly continuously worrying about bad omens and other superstitious things. Extremely accurate, Mark Talbert who is the author carefully demonstrates the Mayan belief in sacrifice.
Living in a small unimportant village in the depth of Mexico,
Balems, the fourteen-year old boys, family lived off the land.
Continuously they grew their own crops, gathered breadnuts and
hunted. When Balem was born, his mother along with his twin died
shortly after. Since his father quickly re-married soon after, balem never really missed his true mother. Living mostly on breadnuts the people craved meat.
While Balem was following the bachelors one-day he miraculously killed a jaguar. Bringing it home as a sacrifice, he was turned down by the priests who said that the gods required one of their own. Balem after being chosen as the best, was decided as sacrifice. Shortly after, Balem
fasted to be clean for the sacrifice, and the story ends with balem on the altar seeing his own beating heart in the priest hands.
As is uncommon with American books Heart of a Jaguar has an
incredibly weird ending. Ending in death is not normally done but finished the story fast. Exceptionally written, true to life, Heart of a Jaguar is a must for all interested in the Maya or any other ancient civilization.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book with Some Gorey Details
Review: Heart of a Jaguar book had an O.K. plot, and there were some good parts. However, the gorey parts made the whole book unenjoyable for me. Since many of them are not appropriate to discuss on the internet, I will not give examples - but they were disgusting. Occasionally the characters did inappropriate things, or used profane language. I know this was how people acted in Mayan days, but the discription of some things was a little bit much. So if you love reading about bloody and gorey things, you would enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Heart of a Jaguar Could it be anymore Boring?
Review: Heart of a Jaguar by Marc Talbert is not a interesting book at all. The book is very boring and the language is some times very confusing. The book is about the life of a Mayan boy living in the forest, that goes thought tough times trying to live without it raining for ages and trying to find out why he is always seeing Jaguars. One reason to not read this book at all because it is very boring. When the book first starts out, it seems like it will be about culture and you have no clue what is going on. Another reason that you should not read this book is that the language is confusing sometimes. The charters will refer to native names of items and you have no clue what they are talking about. This book is very boring and confusing I would not recommended this book at all. A reason why someone might disagree is because the book gets a little more interesting after you read far into it. Like when the tribe finds an enemy that threatens their life. That reason is not good enough because it is to boring to be able to keep reading up to that parts when it gets more interesting. You will be glad that you listen to me and save yourself the money.
Rating:
Summary: Boring like all get out.
Review: Heart of a jaguar by Marc Talbert was heart-stopping, as in animals? (and humans?) hearts were prematurely stopped. This book was about a Mayan boy named Balam. Balam was fourteen years old in the middle of a draught in the year 1200 or so, and the whole novel is about his village trying to please the gods so they would send rain. There is a lot of bloodletting and fear of forest spirits who will try to capture you and haul you off to eat you. In the end Balam?s wife to be gets snitched away by people from another village and in an attempt to exact revenge Balam kills a jaguar, which makes him superior to everyone else, so his village sacrifices him. The end. I did not like this book because it was pretty boring and didn?t really have a plot. It was also way too bloody to be in any way likable.
Rating: 
Summary: Review for Heart of a Jaguar
Review: Heart of a Jaguar By Marc Talbert "It's literally heart stopping"-Lydia By Lydia
I think that Heart of a Jaguar is a good novel. It tells the tale of a boy, Balam, waiting to become a man. When a drought plagues his village, everyone tries to bring rain. However, the rituals are a bit sordid, so I would recommend this to mature readers.
This book depicts what happened in the Post-Classic period of the Mayas. Rituals in the book are not made up, but quite real. Mark Talbert did a good job of studying and preparing for the book. He was well ready to write the book.
The author's note is helpful because it sets the location, two days away from Chichen Itza. However, the tone buttered you up. This was a good book, but could have had a few lighter points.
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