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Editorial Review Product Description
Acclaimed historical novelist Ann Rinaldi makes her "Dear America" debut with the diary of a Sioux girl who is sent to a government-run boarding school to learn the white man's customs and language. ... Read more Customer Reviews (70) 
Deceived
"This book is aimed towards young adult readers, but is suitable for adult readers as well who are interested in Carlisle Indian School and Native American studies. This is a story about a young Sioux girl named Nannie Little Rose who describes her life at Carlisle Indian school in 1880 through a series of diary entries. Through her eyes we get a glimpse into what life was like for Indian children sent to Carlisle.
Unfortunately, though this book has some historical accuracies, it is NOT a true story. Nannie Little Rose did not write this diary, in fact, she never existed. The author, Ann Rinaldi, visited Carlisle and its graveyard and, fascinated by the names on the headstones, decided to write a story about Carlisle and its students using the names on the headstones to create the characters in a fictional account. She did do research and used events that occurred at Carlisle to weave her story, however the events did not take place in the time period covered in her book and any feelings or events specific to the characters are not real - just their names. I found this to be very disappointing, especially after reading the entire book and THEN finding the disclaimer, "While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Nannie Little Rose is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction" on the VERY LAST page of the book. I felt like I was purposely deceived, as everything in the book is made to appear that it is a true accounting and diary, complete with an epilogue detailing what happened to Nannie Little Rose after she left Carlisle - down to the number of children she had and the year of her death.
In addition, because this is a FICTIONAL accounting by someone who is not Indian, one has to question the feelings presented by the characters she has invented. As someone who has some knowledge of what Carlisle was like for its students and how it made them feel and how being there affected their entire lives (my father-in-law was a Carlisle student and spoke about what life was like for him there), I feel that only someone who is Indian, or who has spoken to an Indian who experienced Carlisle, could truly represent their thoughts and feelings about what it was like for them. Rinaldi should have attempted to find someone who actually attended Carlisle to get their personal story to base her characters' thoughts and feelings on. Otherwise, it is just another white person's take on what it is like to be Indian.
In this book, Carlisle is presented very favorably. Some of the injustices are described, but in a somewhat whitewash fashion. I did, however, find Rinaldi's description of an Indian child's first day at Carlisle to be pretty realistic and moving. The 'great experiment' that Capt. Pratt practiced on these people was, in all reality, an attempt at ethnic cleansing. These Indian children were forced to attend the Indian schools. They were stripped of their identities (separated from their families and then separated by their sex, clothes taken and burned, forcibly bathed and de-liced, their hair cut - for an Indian a very traumatic event - names taken and given new Anglo/Christian names) and beaten and punished if they ever spoke their language or did anything remotely 'Indian' again. How is this not like the holocaust for the Jews, save being placed in a gas chamber?
Just like Capt. Pratt with his idea for Indian schools like Carlisle, Ann Rinaldi seems to have had good intentions when writing her book. Her writing and story is good and informative, but unfortunately, by deceiving the reader into thinking it is a true story written by a real person - a Native American, who really attended Carlisle - everything she writes is then suspect and colored by a white person whose experience and understanding can never truly compare. I would recommend reading this book to get a basic idea of Carlisle, but to read further in order to obtain a true accounting."
It may not be historically accurate but,
It's still a good book. This book is about a Native American girl named Little Rose. She is taken to an Indian school, where she has to choose a new name, Nannie. This book is very inspirational, and hopeful.
My Heart is on the ground
My nine year old daughter loved this book. It is very well written and a pleasure to read.
My Heart Is On The Ground
My Heart is on the Ground / 0-590-14922-9
This installation in the Dear America series details the life of a Sioux girl, brought to live at a school for American Indian children to learn American English and the customs of the Caucasian Americans. This book has generated a great deal of controversy and concern, but I feel that (as best I can fathom) Rinaldi has done the best she can with a difficult period of history.
The diary format is employed here, as elsewhere, with dual 'languages' - plain type denotes the narrator's attempts at English, italic type denotes her native language. As in other Dear America diaries, the diary device is meant as a teaching device and the narrator's English improves throughout the story. This dual writing device is useful because it shows the narrator's sympathetic struggles with a new language, without muting her inner thoughts or making her seem 'stupid' for her poor communication.
The school is shown in a very mixed light and, I feel, the terrible plight of the American Indians is shown here very starkly. The narrator explains how they have fewer animals each year to hunt, because the practices of the Caucasian Americans are causing the extinction of the animals. She tells with sadness about the slaughter and starvation of her people, and the other American Indian tribes. Although the school staff believes they are doing her a favor in turning her from her 'barbaric' past, she bravely insists that her past is not barbaric, that she is a proud descendant of a unique and beautiful culture. She accepts the training taught to her at the school for HER own purposes only - she wants to use what she learns to go back to her people and help them, in whatever way she can. In this way, I feel that the narrator character is one of the strongest and bravest characters in the Dear America series - willing to take on the world to save her people.
There are some frightening parts here that may not be acceptable for small children. The narrator's closest friend goes into a trance and either dies or (as our narrator is convinced) is buried alive by the foolish medical staff. Other children die of various illnesses, and the medical staff at the school is (probably accurately) shown as not very competent. The teachers are, in general, cruel and vicious and refuse to treat the different tribes as different - they treat all the children as one conglomerate whole of "Indians", which chafes the students and causes much private dissention.
I cannot say with accuracy how much of this book is correct in terms of tribal customs of Hopi, Sioux, etc. I can say that this book seemed, to me, to be very sympathetic and in the spirit of the best of the Dear America books. I would recommend this to any child, and any inaccuracies I would use as a stepping stone to learn more about this subject and to explain how poorly the American Indians were treated.
~ Ana Mardoll
HORRIBLE
I cannot believe this bastardization of a historical event is still on the market. This is horribly inaccurate, using the actual names of Native American children that died, probably because of abuse,malnutrition,ect while they stayed at this horrible boarding school. The author obviously knows NOTHING about this particular tribe's customs and generalizes everything. I would not want any child to read this novel and get the wrong idea about what happened in the past. This does not deserve to be titled a historical fiction, rather it is a book written by an ignorant woman who has NO respect for the deceased, or Native Americans. What was scholastic thinking?
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