My Name Is Seepeetza [Hardcover]

Shirley Sterling (Author)

Book Description

A young Native American girl, Seepeetza finds herself caught between cultures and confused by painful feelings of alienation and isolation as she spends months at an Indian residential school, where her name is changed to Martha Stone.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Written in what PW called a "devastatingly simple" style, this "rather desolate" autobiographical novel chronicles a girl's harsh experiences at an Indian residential school in 1950s British Columbia. Ages 10-12.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 5^-10. Her name is Seepeetza, but at the Indian residential school in British Columbia, she is called Martha. She hates her white name, but she is beaten if she talks "Indian." Her long hair is cut off. At the same time, the other students pick on her because she has green eyes and looks white. When she wets her bed, the nuns make her wear the wet sheet over her head. She gets in trouble for daydreaming about the family ranch on the reservation that she was forced to leave to come to school. First published in 1992 in Canada, where it won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Book Prize, this autobiographical novel is written in the form of Seepeetza's diary in her sixth-grade year in the 1950s. The drawback of the journal format is that the vignettes are sometimes static, repetitive, and disjointed. The great advantage is the immediacy of the child's voice and viewpoint. We feel her bewilderment and fear, her helplessness, and, above all, her longing for home. Few books dramatize this experience for young readers. Without preaching or rhetoric, the cruelty is laid bare. Hazel Rochman

Product Details

• Hardcover: 126 pages
• Publisher: Groundwood Books (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0888992904
• ISBN-13: 978-0888992901
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,358,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, January 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: My Name Is Seepeetza (Hardcover)

This book was very interesting. It showed how Martha Stone kept memories of the ranch she lived on while away at school. These memories took her through the horrible school year where friends were seldom.