Girl-On-Fire [Paperback]

Vicki Werkley (Author), Jean Laidig (Author), Gayle Highpine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 1999

Winner - Evvy Award - Legacy. Finalist - IPPY Award - Multi-cultural Fiction. Based upon exhaustive research and collaboration with the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee, author Vicki Hessel Werkley's debut novel thunders across the 1874 plains of Texas and Oklahoma. While the Red River War rages, the personal drama of Carrie McEdan unfolds as she's abducted from the harsh wind-torn life she's known in a soddy, and is swept into Comanche tribal life.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA-Red-haired Carrie McEdan, 17, is smitten with Danny, a wealthy rancher's son. At a church picnic, the two make plans for Carrie to remain behind when the rest of the family goes to town so that they can discuss their future. However, it isn't Danny who comes to the "soddy," but four Comanche warriors. They abduct Carrie, along with her father's prized horse herd, and embark on a grueling five-day trek across the Texas prairie. Determined to survive, the teen spends the next two months with the tribe. Just as Carrie (whose hair color has earned her the name Girl-on-Fire) grows more accepting of her captors, a startling turn of events reconciles her previous life with her more recent one. The strength of this book is in the rich details of Native American culture in the 1870s. The smell of wood smoke and simmering stews; the "tidy efficiency" of a tepee with its inner drape, rawhide trunks, and willow-slat beds; and the sounds of the language and songs all encourage readers to experience the human complexities of tribal life. Even teens reluctantly fulfilling a dreaded historical fiction assignment should become caught up in the protagonist's bittersweet adventure with a people who will soon face many tragic losses of their own.
Dori DeSpain, Herndon Fortnightly Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The strength of this book is in the rich details of Native American culture in the 1870s. The smell of wood smoke and simmering stews; the tidy effi-cieny of a tepee with its inner drape, rawhide trunks, and willow-slat beds; and the sounds of the language and songs all encourage readers to experience the human complexities of tribal life. --School Library Journal

Girl-On-Fire is a superbly written book . . . extraordinarily accurate about the daily life and responsibilities of Comanche women and with the Comanche language appropriately used. Vicki Werkley has done an outstanding job in her research of the Comanche People. I give this book two thumbs up! --Thekwane (Jolene Jimenez), Comanche Tribal Princess, 1988

Girl-On-Fire was a pleasure! The closest book I have read to capturing the true essence of Comanche Women! --Diana G. Sovo, Personnel Director, Comanche Nation; Comanche Tribal Princess, 1983

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: Haven Books (December 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584364009
• ISBN-13: 978-1584364009
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,743,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, true-to-life tale of a vanished life-style, February 7, 2002

By 

Lea Ames (Southern USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl-On-Fire (Paperback)

Set during the 19th century events that brought an end to the Commanche way of life, the story opens and concludes with Carrie's dream of a great black horse with eyes of fire. An appropriate devise, as "the Commanches put great store in their dreams and visions and the messages they get from their spirits." Deftly written detail makes Carrie's adventure spring cinematically to life. Especially vivid is her attempted escape on horseback. Carrie's interior conversations, as she listens to the different voices within her, add depth to the story. She gradually comes to recognize that the ways of the Commanche, at first so different from anything she has known, are intrinsically closer to her own than those of the culture in which she has been raised. Like Danny, Carrie eventually finds herself caught between two worlds--immeasurably enriched by the joys and sufferings of both.
The helpful pronunciation guide at the front enables the reader to "hear" the Commanche being spoken. Anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to live as a Native American in the old West will be enthralled by this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reads Like a Prairie Fire!, March 30, 2000

By 

Jacqueline C. Simonds "Publisher, Beagle Bay ... (Reno, NV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl-On-Fire (Paperback)

Girl-On-Fire is a quick-paced, exciting, well-researched book that'll make you stay inside reading on a beautiful Spring day! As personal (you feel you KNOW Carrie)and in-depth in the folkways of the pioneers as the "Little House on the Prairie" books, but with unexpected insights into Comanche lives and culture as well. A terrific story depicting the conflict of two cultures and the rare bridges that individuals can forge in spite of these differences. I found the end so wrenching, I couldn't imagine how Carrie could stand to make her decision!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rare glimpse into the life of Plains Indian women, May 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Girl-On-Fire (Paperback)

As a Native American woman, I greatly appreciate this book for the way that it captures the flavor of Plains Indian women's lives in the pre-reservation days.

The story falls into two halves. The first half is about the capture by Comanche warriors of the main character, Carrie, from her homestead in Texas, and their journey over the Plains. That half of the book is a vividly and skillfully written adventure, but not outstandingly special as adventure stories go, other than having a brave female protagonist.

It is in the second half that the book shines. That is when Carrie is brought to the Comanche camp, an alien place to her at first, and chapter by chapter she starts to form relationships with the women of the camp and to become assimilated into the women's community.

Native American women's culture and women's community, of past or present, are given very little attention by novelists in general, and in this book in a few short chapters the life of Indian women of the Plains 150 years ago becomes vividly alive. This is a book I would highly recommend for Women's Studies classes and for anyone who is interested in experiencing the lives of women of another time and place. I would also not hesitate to recommend this book to other Indians, because even though the story happens through the point of view of an outsider observer, the Indian characters are flesh-and-blood human beings and it is obvious that the author actually talked to Indians to do her research, and didn't just read books.