Amazon.com Review
Legendary scout Kit Carson's sassy daughter Adaline, or Falling Star, as her Arapaho mother called her before succumbing to cholera, is mute with grief. Her widowed father has left her with his racist, cruel relatives until he returns from his Rocky Mountain expedition. But her cousins' treatment of her is more than she can bear. Instead of allowing her to go to school, they force her to work as a servant in the schoolhouse. Due to her "half-breed" status, she is barely considered human. Her mixed heritage causes her plenty of internal confusion, as well.
"I'm a mix, I reckon, of white and red blood, and also a jumbled love for free roaming and the Fruits of Civilization, which is what Doc Hempstead calls reading, writing, and geography."
Adaline's intelligence and sensitivity keep her alive when her impulsiveness provokes her to run away to find her father. Her bravery and gritty frontier resourcefulness rival her father's, but her compassion is all her own.
In this lively and touching account, Mary Pope Osborne has fictionalized the life of Kit Carson's real but little-known daughter. Osborne is the renowned author of the very popular Magic Tree House series, as well as many other books for children and young adults, including a collection of yarns about American folk heroes called American Tall Tales. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Osborne (The Magic Tree) strikes out in a new direction in this assured novel based on a real, though little-known character: the daughter of Kit Carson and his Arapaho wife. As the story opens, 11-year-old narrator Adaline has lost her mother to fever, and her father has deposited her with pious relatives in St. Louis while he heads west on a scouting expedition. "Hold your tongue, darter, was Pa's last words of advice, and ever since, I been as quiet as a rabbit in the grass," notes the normally outspoken girl. Though Adaline knows how to read, her father's cousin assumes she's ignorant and mute and puts her to work instead of enrolling her in his school. Her intolerant Christian relatives tap into historical stereotypes (Cousin Silas introduces Adaline as having a "devilish mixture of white and Indian blood"; his daughter, Lilly, tells Adaline, "You must have done some sinning before you were born, or you wouldn't have been born half red"). Readers may well breathe a sigh of relief when the second half of the novel takes a Huck Finn-esque turn, as Adeline heads downriver in search of her father. Vivid historical detail and descriptive prose ("my heart beats like it's filled with bird wings") fuel the narrative. Adaline possesses a wisdom marked by an often heartbreaking sense of humor. Ages 9-14. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
