Synopsis
In his first contemporary book for young readers, Michael Dorris introduces readers to 11-year-old Rayona Taylor--part black, part Indian--and shows the events that shaped this unforgettable young woman. After being placed in foster care, Rayona goes to live with her Kentucky relatives, in this novel about betrayal, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bonds of family.
Reviews
Grade 4-8. The story of 11-year-old Rayona, a character in Dorris's adult book, Yellow Raft in Blue Water. Her Native American mother is dysfunctional as a parent, yet Rayona obviously loves her. When Mom enters a chemical dependency treatment program, Rayona's black father, who has also been unreliable and is unwilling to care for her himself, cons a social-worker girl friend into sneaking her into a foster home. The first situation with a do-gooder family is a caricature pure and simple. Then, Rayona supposedly effects in a single evening a lasting personality shift in a rigid, retired African-American teacher. When neither placement works out, her father ships her off to the home of his mother, grandmother, and aunt. Despite the book's beautiful prose and Rayona's resilience in dealing with grim realities no child should ever have to face, there are problems. The adult characters lack depth and motivation. The girl's relatives in Kentucky, a family of women who previously appeared in Cloud Chamber, blend together, reduced to paper-doll images. Readers who go on to the adult books, which take place at different times, will find that they make no sense. As a prequel or a sequel, this is a complete non sequitir. Most troubling of all is the way the father gives Rayona power through sharing his secret with her. Rayona thinks, "Having a secret with somebody means they trust you, because you could always betray them....When you know somebody's secret, it's up to you to protect them. They need you." It is sad that neither the author nor Rayona ever seem to figure out what's wrong with that line of thought.?Carol A. Edwards, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Rayona Taylor, the heroine from Dorris's adult novels, A Yellow Raft in Blue River (1987) and Cloud Chamber (1997), is featured in this prequel, about her life as an 11-year-old who is abandoned by her Native American mother, and shuffled from place to place by her African-American father. Rayona spends time in two foster homes before she ends up with her father's mother, sister, and grandmother, who are white. Wherever she goes, Rayona has an effect on the adults--they grow and change while she stays the same. The first-person narration is sophisticated and perceptive, and seems to promise more of a story than it delivers: As the three older women and Rayona climb in a car for a cross-country trip back to the girl's mother, readers are ready for the story to begin at last, until they realize that there are only 20 pages left in the book. Dorris's lyrical writing and ability to create evocative moments will sustain those who have read his historical novels, but won't give them an idea of the real Rayona of the earlier books. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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