Dawn Rider

Kit Fox's sixteenth year with her people, the Bloods, is filled with preparations for an important buffalo run, talk of her older sister's coming marriage, and skirmishes with their traditional enemy the Snakes.

Grade 5-8-- Like the feisty heroine of Hudson's Sweetgrass (Philomel, 1989), Kit Fox, a 16-year-old Blackfoot Indian girl living on the western prairies in 1750, may describe herself as an ordinary middle child, but she is vividly drawn as an appealing, strong character. The girl is drawn to the first wild horse that the men have captured; together she and Found Arrow, the horse's young guard, plot to keep her unapproved riding a secret. She demonstrates courage as she rides the animal to the Cree tribe in search of guns needed for an imminent enemy attack. Along with her story, readers glimpse details and patterns of daily life in the Blackfoot tribe, including work and eating habits, the ritual of the buffalo run, wedding and engagement customs, and rites of passage into adulthood. Especially poignant and ironic is the ending scene in which Kit Fox and Found Arrow exchange youthful hopes for the bright future of the Blackfoot because of the use of guns and horses. An historical native American novel, a romance, and a coming-of-age story, woven in flowing, lyric, descriptive language. --Yvonne Frey, Peoria Public Schools, IL
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