CHILD OF THE DEAD [Hardcover]

Don Goldsmith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

Mourning the death of her husband, Running Deer risks her life to stay at a camp devastated by smallpox and to care for the one surviving child, in a saga of clashing cultures, loss, and the healing power of love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coldsmith continues his Spanish Bit Saga, historicals about life among the Plains Indians (Track of the Bear), with an entry that's at once elegiac and down-to-earth. Set in the 18th century, this new story depicts the trials of the tribe known as "the People" as they cope with the dangers posed by European diseases against which they have no natural immunity. The narrative begins just after the end of the annual Sun Dance, which brings together all the bands of the People as well as other tribes. For the aged Running Deer, it will be her last Sun Dance. Recently widowed, she believes that she has nothing left to live for and so vows that she will take her own life rather than become a burden on her friends and relatives. As her band breaks camp and heads for its winter grounds, she and her tribespeople come upon the deserted large village of another tribe. The reasons for the camp's abandonment soon become clear: it has been struck by the dreaded poch (French for smallpox). The only survivor is a young girl who is already exhibiting signs of the plague. Though others in Running Deer's band want to leave the girl to die, Running Dear decides to nurse her back to health. The bond formed between the old woman and Gray Mouse, who also becomes known as Child-of-the-Dead, forms the emotional center of this novel, which turns on love, the meaning of life and the tension between cultural alienation and the need to belong. In time, Gray Mouse grows into a young woman among a people not her own; her longing to return to her own tribe resolves in a finale that's at once touching and promising of a sequel.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA?This novel contains much material with which YAs will identify, as it is a story about finding one's place. Proud, independent Running Deer, still resentful over the death of her husband, decides that she, too, wants a noble death. She leaves her people to be with Gray Mouse, a sick child who is the only one still living after an epidemic of smallpox wiped out her tribe. They both survive and eventually return to Running Deer's people. Ten years later, in the plot's climax, Gray Mouse tries to find relatives and others who knew her original extended family in order to discover who she really is. Despite a slow start, the tale moves quickly and easily and has moments of adventure and unique characters with strong feelings.?Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385470290
• ISBN-13: 978-0385470292
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,026,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pick up this book and you will not be able to put it down, January 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Child of the Dead: (The Spanish Bit Saga) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is so good that it made me want to buy the whole series of the Spanish Bit. It was the first of many books of the Spanish Bit that I read. They are all great. The struggle they over come in the book will want you aching for more.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cultures clash and disease strikes, March 3, 2011

By 

D. Mckinzie (Atoka, OK) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Child of the Dead: Spanish Bit Saga, Number 4 (Kindle Edition)

I love most of the books in Don Coldsmith's "Spanish Bit Saga" but this is one of my favorites. Coldsmith often takes events that happen in most people's lives and spins them to fit his tribe of American Indians and this one is classic. An older woman, feeling neglected and purposeless decides to find a way to die. When her tribe finds a village (of another tribe), nearly wiped out by the "spotted disease" of the white men, the woman decides that she can die while helping a little girl, who has been left by panicked villagers, as she dies. It's an engaging story from a great story-teller.