September 1, 2018
Twelve-year-old Cal Blackbird trades the freedom of hobo living with his father, a World War I vet, for the regimented world of Challagi Indian Boarding School.Set in spring and summer of 1932 Depression-era America, Bruchac's (Abenaki) historical novel sees narrator Cal and his father riding the rails, eking out a meager and honest life as inseparable "knights of the road." But when Pop reads news about fellow veterans gathering in Washington, D.C., to demand payment of promised bonuses, he decides to "join [his] brother soldiers." To keep Cal safe while away, Pop tells him about their Creek heritage and enrolls him at Challagi. Even though he's only "half Creek" and has been raised white, Cal easily makes friends there with a gang of Creek boys and learns more about his language and culture in the process. Though the book is largely educational, Creek readers may notice the language discrepancy when their word for "African-American" is twice used to label a light-skinned Creek boy. Additionally, Cal's articulation of whiteness sounds more like a 21st-century adult's then a Depression-era boy's. More broadly, readers accustomed to encountering characters who struggle along their journeys may find many of the story's conflicts resolved without significant tension and absent the resonant moments that the subject matter rightly deserves.A lesser-known aspect of Native American history that promises the excitement of riding the rails yet delivers a handcar version of the boarding school experience. (list of characters, afterword) (Historical fiction. 10-14)
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October 1, 2018
Grades 5-8 Multiple compelling Depression-era histories converge in Bruchac's latest, about a boy attending a government boarding school for Native Americans in 1932. Cal enjoys being a hobo with Pop, riding the rails and doing honest work. But then Pop gives Cal two pieces of life-changing news. The first is that Pop, who Cal always thought was white, is a Creek Indian. Second, Pop is going to D.C. to protest with other WWI veterans for their bonus payments. While Pop is gone, Cal will attend the Challagi Indian Boarding School, where Pop went as a boy. Challagi is a bleak and often brutal place, but, while there, Cal befriends other Native boys from various tribes for the first time. Pop's recollections of the abuses he witnessed at Challagi are so harsh that readers might initially wonder why he sends his son there?a question Bruchac also thoughtfully addresses in the afterword. But the students' utter subversion of Challagi's mission to sever their ties with Indian culture soon becomes apparent, as does Cal's powerful, growing understanding of his identity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
January 1, 2019
Cal Black enjoys his nomadic life with his WWI-veteran father in Depression-era America. But then his father reveals their Creek heritage and enrolls Cal in an Oklahoma Indian boarding school. Cal, who always believed he was white, confronts this heretofore-unknown part of himself while adjusting to a school designed to "kill the Indian" within him. His first-person narration rings true in this tautly paced, compelling story of family and identity.
(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
Starred review from November 1, 2018
Abenaki author and storyteller Bruchac (Code Talkers; Talking Leaves, rev. 7/16) crafts an emotional and informative work of historical fiction about family and identity. Set in 1932, the novel finds young Cal Black, who is half Creek but has believed he was white his entire life, and his father riding the railroad lines of Depression-era America as hoboes in search of work. Cal, who experiences unexplained premonitions, enjoys their nomadic life, but when his father, a WWI veteran, feels compelled to join the Bonus Army march in Washington, DC, he tells Cal about their true heritage and enrolls him in an Indian boarding school in Oklahoma?the same one he attended as a young man. Cal is forced to confront this heretofore-unknown part of his heritage while adjusting to life at a school designed to kill the Indian within him, even if he doesn't know exactly what it means to be Creek in the first place. The first-person narrative rings true, and Cal's visions work both to heighten the tension and to propel the story forward. The fictional Challagi School Cal attends stands in for the actual Indian boarding schools of the era and gives readers a look into the day-to-day life of a student at one of these institutions. The afterword provides readers more information on the history of federal Indian boarding schools, as well as further background on the Great Depression. A tautly paced and compelling story of self-discovery, family, belonging, and friendship. eric carpenter
(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)