What Were "They" Thinking?

In her book, "Children of the Indian Boarding Schools (Picture the American Past)", Holly Littlefield covers a time in which the U.S. Government decided that the best thing for children was to take them -- by force -- from their families.

I have to wonder where the outraged mothers were while this was happening. I can only assume that either people's trust in authority was so great that they were reluctant to act, or else that the people of that time were so racially biased that they didn't think it was wrong to separate parents and their darlings because they were Indian. In any case, here is the review of this interesting children's book.

000

"The School Journal" and "Booklist" suggest this book for children as young as 2nd Grade. But given the subject matter, and given the reading level, I would think that 4th Grade-and-Up might be more appropriate.

The Accelerated Reading listing for "Children of the Indian Boarding Schools" is 5.4. This means that this book is generally suited for 5th Graders in the 4th month of school. That alone, of course, does not suggest that the book is inappropriate for younger children. However this book talks about the Government (ours... U.S.A.) coming and forcefully taking children from their parents. And, in fact, arresting fathers and sending them to prison when they objected to having their families torn apart.

To me, this is difficult material. And while it is handled quite well there are enough dark moments that come to light that I was not comfortable reading the book to my second grader. The author gives us, for example, excepts from letters, and quotes from adults, which speak of their sadness at being taken away from their families. We are also given some sad facts about how many children died in these institutions that were supposedly for their benefit.

Rating ::: Very Good
Summary ::: A moving book about a dark time in U.S. history. Holly Littlefield does a fine job in describing what was involved in the forceful placement of Native American children into Boarding Schools. She discusses how the children were taught English and the Christian religion, and generally made to present themselves in a western fashion. The presentation is somewhat biased towards the negative, although the author does give a few examples of children that appeared to benefit.

The Accelerated Reading designation is given as 5.4.

Note on AR designation: The AR description is a general "guide" that rates books on a relative scale of difficulty. Children can certainly read at levels above or below their group range, so that this number should only be used as a aid to help choose books that are appropriate and not frustrating.

To find this book at a library near you try World Catalog.