Sweetgrass - Hardcover

Jan Hudson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399217215 ISBN 13: 9780399217210

Publisher: Philomel, 1989

Synopsis

Living on the western Canadian prairie in the nineteenth century, Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot Indian girl, saves her family from a smallpox epidemic and proves her maturity to her father.

About this title

About the Author:

Jan Hudson, a Canadian author of historical fiction, wrote two novels, Sweetgrass and Dawn Rider, both of which exemplify her interest in "social anthropology--the little things that make up most people's lives," as she stated in a 1989 Publishers Weekly interview with Bella Stander. She conveyed these details by using the history of the Blackfoot Nation as her background. Hudson's hope, more specifically, was to write about the lives of Canadian Indian women of the past who, in her opinion, had been ignored.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5-10-- A masterpiece combining elements of an historical, a native American, a survival, and a coming-of-age novel set in the 19th-Century western Canadian prairie. During an attack against her village by another tribe, Sweetgrass, the 15-year-old spirited Blackfoot heroine, demonstrates her practicality, but her father still considers her too young for marriage. The real test comes during a fierce winter when smallpox spreads through the camp, taking two of her brothers, her best friend, and many other Indians. She cares for her family members faithfully, tries unsuccessfully to hunt for food, and decides instead on defying the river demon by catching fish, even though Blackfoot laws forbid the consumption of fish. For her selflessness, she earns the respect of her almost-mother and her younger brother, Otter. Now at last her father considers her a woman. Hudson's language is simple and flowing, with many vivid images ("Prickly is how frost feels, like plant burrs against my insides, like my fear of the nearness of winter"). This is a book which could be enjoyed even by reluctant readers, and is one which will invite re-reading. The message is one which is valuable for young readers to consider: maturity is not measured by one's physical growth alone but by the manner in which one faces both the emergencies of life and the ordinary and practical chores of everyday living. This will be a welcome addition to fictional works on the American Indian because of its point of view and because of its rich detail of Indian life. --Yvonne A. Frey, Peoria Public Library, Ill.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Philomel
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0399217215
• ISBN 13: 9780399217210
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 159