The Lost Ones

January 1, 2017

Gr 4-7-The real-life drama of 12-year-old Casita and her younger brother Jack is the premise of this historical fiction novel about Lipan Apache children adapting to life at the Carlisle Indian School. It opens with a gratuitously graphic raid by the U.S. calvary on the young protagonist's village, during which her mother is murdered. The incident is reminiscent of a similar scene from the Newbery Award-winning book Matchlock Gun (1938), in which American Indians attack white settlers. Unfortunately, the author's descriptions of the two main Native children often borrow heavily from stereotypical depictions from that same era. The captured children are transported east to live on a military base in the care of a childless Quaker woman and her lieutenant officer husband. The couple accept the responsibility of "civilizing" Casita and Jack. The narrative consistently uses phrases that imbue the children with animal-like qualities. Further playing into troublesome stereotypes about Native people, the terms fierce and warrior are used to describe Jack, a little boy who is about eight years old. Also disturbing is Jack's elation at being called a "mascot." Though the author consulted with Native readers, she nevertheless projects a nonindigenous point of view, manifested most obviously in how the children think and why they react as they do in certain situations. VERDICT The complexities of Native cultures and the realities of the history of residential schools deserve to be addressed by someone with a deep and suitable knowledge of Apache culture. Not recommended.-Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State University, Montgomery

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.