Last Child [Hardcover]

Michael Spooner (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up | Grade Level: 6 and up

A mixed-race girl must grow up quickly when danger threatens her world

Rosalie’s biggest problem used to be her own divided feelings. The constant tug-of-war between her white half and her Native American half is hard. She even has two names: Rosalie when she’s at the fort with her father and Last Child when she’s in the village with her mother.

But now a steamboat has carried smallpox into Rosalie’s world—and the Mandans have no resistance to the disease. Suddenly the name Last Child is all too real.

Set during the smallpox epidemic of 1837, this is the powerful story of a mixed-race girl fighting her way into adulthood against all odds.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–It is 1837, and Rosalie (also known as Last Child) isn't sure who she is. Her father is a white bookkeeper inside Fort Clark (ND), while her mother lives in the nearby Mandan village. Rosalie calls both places home, yet belongs in neither. The Mandans war frequently with the Dakotas, making life uncertain. Then she is taken captive by a deranged steamboat captain whose boat brought smallpox to the area and must rely on her wits and Native skills to return home, where her father has turned to drink and her mother is dying. With the help of her grandmother, Muskat Woman, Rosalie must determine her identity and her future. Spooner has written a compelling story, historically accurate with a vivid setting, and yet colored with sparkling characters. Though the start is a little sluggish, and the ending is somewhat melodramatic and contrived, many readers will identify with Rosalie's struggle for acceptance and belonging.–Melissa Moore, Union University Library, Jackson, TN
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 8-11. The horror of the smallpox epidemic that killed more than 20,000 Indians from the Upper Missouri nations in the late 1830s is told from the perspective of a young girl at a fur-company outpost, who is caught between her loving Scottish dad, who calls her Rosalie, and her Mandan family that calls her Last Child. The cast of characters is huge, and there's almost too much plot to handle, including a survival adventure in which the girl escapes a Dakota raid and makes it back home. There are also some intrusive messages against the whites' view of "discovery" of the "New World." But the characters are neither demons nor saints. They are strong, disagreeable, loving, and needy, and the diversity is part of the drama, as is Rosalie's changing relationship with her broken dad. The history (further discussed in extensive endnotes) is as compelling as the fiction, and children will want to go on from here to read James Giblin's When Plague Strikes (1995). Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805077391
• ISBN-13: 978-0805077391
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,297 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, May 30, 2006

By 

Sam "a teacher" (Logan, UT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Child (Hardcover)

Rosalie is a great character, one that readers might remember from Daniel's Walk as the feisty one with the smart mouth. She's clever and resourceful, but with a Mandan mother and a white father, she's a bit confused about who she is. She figures out who she is as she deals with a smallpox epidemic that pretty much wipes out her Mandan tribe. The historical detail is excellent, the plot moves along quickly, and the character of Rosalie is shaped perfectly all the way to the end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History Reality, November 12, 2007

By 

M. Andreasen "behavior tamer" (Utah United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Child (Hardcover)

I had to read this for a college course and I'm glad I did. This is historical fiction that addresses the relationship between Native Americans and the Europeans in a true to life fashion. No sugar coating or misrepresentation. This is a great book.