THE SECRET NAME

by Barbara Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 30, 1972

A little muffled culture shock is experienced by the Mills family, even more by Betsy Burnsides, when the eight year-old reservation Navajo comes to live with the white family. Betsy has never had a bath or a bed or a change of clothes and her views on good luck and good manners cause a string of painful moments. But Laurie Mills, nine, is (rather improbably) patient with her new sister and Betsy is just beginning to adjust when she's called back to the reservation by her mother's serious illness. Laurie hopes Betsy will return next fall but Father still isn't sure it's right to re-program the child for an uncertain future; though the issue is never resolved Laurie is happier about it after she sends Betsy a gift via her brother's Navajo friend at college, and receives in turn the present of Betsy's secret Indian name. There's none of the depth or complexity of Neufeld's Edgar Allan here, no tough decisions to make despite Laurie's troubled questions about what's right for Betsy, and though the matter of Betsy's return remains open, the final exchange of gifts constitutes the kind of tidy wrap-up that makes the whole thing easy to forget. But Ms. Williams touches on a real dilemma and the details of the two girls' interaction add topical substance to the undemanding story.

Pub Date: Aug. 30, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION