Lone Star: A Story of the Texas Rangers (Once Upon America)

In 1847, eleven-year-old Clay dreams of becoming a Texas Ranger so that he can exact revenge upon the Comanche Indians who attacked his family, until personal experience acquaints him with the brutal reality of Ranger activities

Grade 4-6-The year is 1847, and Clay, 11, thinks he wants to be a Texas Ranger so that he can "make the Comanches pay for what they did" to his family. In the opening chapter, he takes his younger sister to Doc Williams (she had stepped on glass). By the last chapter, Clay has decided that being a Ranger is not for him after all; being a doctor probably is. In between are plot thrusts and feints- will Seth, the Ranger Clay admires, marry his sister? (He doesn't.) An interesting fact woven into the text is the origin of the term "cowboy" (also available in World Book and other sources). Young readers might not notice, but the insertion of bits of historical information into the story is transparently done. Full-page pencil sketches illustrate each chapter. Texas readers might enjoy this book, but they'd be better off with G. Clifton Wisler's Buffalo Moon (1984; o.p.) or The Raid (1985; o.p., both Lodestar).
George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3-6. More than anything else, 11-year-old Clay Andrews wants to be a Texas Ranger so he can take revenge on the Comanche Indians who killed his father, kidnapped his little brother, and shattered his family's happiness. The Rangers are known to be adventurous, freewheeling protectors and avengers, and that's just what Clay wants to be. Clay is quite taken with the Ranger his older sister Caroline meets, until he experiences the Rangers' brand of vigilante justice and discovers the senseless slaughter of an elderly Comanche and a little girl. Like others in the Once upon America series, this offers readers a slice of history, thoughtfully presented, that is certain to provoke much discussion and comparison to events occurring today. Here, Kudlinski shows the devastating effects of racial hatred and explains that atrocities committed by both sides were motivated by a desire to possess the land. She also provides a very brief history of the Rangers. Chris Sherman