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THE LOST ONES

Name: THE LOST ONES
Author: Michaela MacColl
ISBN: 978-1-62979-742-7

From the Hidden Mysteries series , Vol. 3

by Michaela MacColl ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Misses the cultural mark.

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In 1877 the 4th U.S. Cavalry was ordered to annihilate the Indian problem in Texas.

As Ndé/Lipan Apache protagonist Casita and her mother discuss her Changing Woman ceremony, the cavalry attacks her village, massacring most, including Casita’s mother. Taken with her younger brother and other survivors to Fort Clark, Casita hides how she has learned English while traveling with her father until a white Quaker nurse, Mollie Smith, earns her trust. Considered prisoners of war by the Army, the children live with the nurse and her lieutenant husband as servants. Jack is delighted to train the soldiers’ horses and pleased to be called their “mascot.” After three years at the fort, the children are all transferred to the Carlisle Indian School. While there, Jack excels and later is adopted by one of the white teachers, but Casita remains and, with her Apache girlfriends, defiantly re-enacts the Ndé Changing Woman ceremony to honor lost traditions. Though evidently approved by two Native elders—a relative of the real-life Casita supplies an afterword—much of MacColl’s book is problematic for today’s readers. Jack’s pleasure at being named mascot feels very out of touch with current campaigns to eliminate Indian mascots, and calling the Changing Woman deity a “goddess” forces Ndé cosmology into Western structures. Furthermore, perhaps out of an overabundance of sensitivity to middle-grade readers, MacColl downplays the Carlisle School experience, a well-documented historic trauma.

Misses the cultural mark. (author’s note, photos, bibliography) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-62979-742-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
LADY OF THE LINES
by Michaela MacColl ; illustrated by Elisa Chavarri

- BOOK REVIEW
VIEW FROM PAGODA HILL
by Michaela MacColl

- BOOK REVIEW
FREEDOM'S PRICE
by Michaela MacColl & Rosemary Nichols

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THE SEVENTH MOST IMPORTANT THING

by Shelley Pearsall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2015

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Traumatized by his father’s recent death, a boy throws a brick at an old man who collects junk in his neighborhood and winds up on probation working for him.

Pearsall bases the book on a famed real work of folk art, the Throne of the Third Heaven, by James Hampton, a janitor who built his work in a garage in Washington, D.C., from bits of light bulbs, foil, mirrors, wood, bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard—the titular seven most important things. In late 1963, 13-year-old Arthur finds himself looking for junk for Mr. Hampton, who needs help with his artistic masterpiece, begun during World War II. The book focuses on redemption rather than art, as Hampton forgives the fictional Arthur for his crime, getting the boy to participate in his work at first reluctantly, later with love. Arthur struggles with his anger over his father’s death and his mother’s new boyfriend. Readers watch as Arthur transfers much of his love for his father to Mr. Hampton and accepts responsibility for saving the art when it becomes endangered. Written in a homespun style that reflects the simple components of the artwork, the story guides readers along with Arthur to an understanding of the most important things in life.

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)