Synopsis
Winner of the Newbery Medal
An ALA Notable Children's Book
Winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Just sixteen, Jefferson Davis Bussey can't wait to leave his Kansas farm and defend the Union against Colonel Watie, leader of the dreaded Cherokee Indian rebels. But - exhausted, starved, and scared - he soon learns that there's more to war than honor and glory. And when he is sent to infiltrate the enemy camp as a spy, Jeff makes his most important discovery of all: The rebels are just men - and boys - like him.
Available only in The Literacy Bridge 5.
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About the Author
Harold Keith grew up near the Cherokee country he describes in Rifles for Watie.A native Oklahoman, he was edu-cated at Northwestern State Teachers College at Alva and at the University of Oklahoma.
While traveling in eastern Oklahoma doing research on his master's thesis in history, Mr. Keith found a great deal of fresh material about the Civil War in the Indian country. Deciding he might someday write a historical novel, he interviewed twenty--two Civil War veterans then living in Oklahoma and Arkansas; much of the background of Rifles for Watiecame from the note-books he filled at that time. The actual writing of this book took five years.
Since 1930, the author has been sports publicity director at the University of Oklahoma. He is married and has a son and daughter.
Review
"[Rifles for Watie] should hold a place with the best Civil War fiction for young people."
-- The Horn Book (Horn Book Magazine )
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