Best Friends

When a settler's young daughter learns that soldiers will force the Nez Perce off the nearby land, she uses a doll to warn her Indian friend of the impending danger Read more Continue reading Read less FROM SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Grade 1-3ASet in Idaho in the 1870s, this story limns the friendship between a settler's daughter and a Nez Perce girl and of the circumstances that allow Charlotte to warn Lily that soldiers are planning to round up her people. First Charlotte teaches Lily to read and write, and then she sends her a message hidden in the head of the doll with which the girls often played. There is no character development to speak of, and Charlotte's voice as she looks back on the events seems detached, both from the action and from the people she describes. The most interesting feature here is the archival photography that is scattered in spot illustrations throughout, but even the impact of these pictures is vitiated by the unconvincing, expressionless figures in Krupinski's gouache paintings, which are given more prominence.AMiriam Lang Budin, Mt. Kisco Public Library, NY
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