The Education of Little Tree

Rating:
Summary: An old-fashioned story
Review: This is book is different than most books you read. This book is an old fashioned story about an Indian family and their adventure. I liked how the book showed how beautiful nature can be, for everyone should agree that he described the background and nature so well. There were many great lessons by Grandpa about "the way." These important themes in the book help you in your life, for they teach you lessons that if you follow make you a better person. You should look at the way the family acts, for they are role models, for they do the right things and they look at the good side of everything even when things get bad. They don't get into any mischief and therefore don't get in trouble, and since they don't get in any trouble, they are happier. I like how the book showed the spiritual side of things and showed the beauty of nature, which so many people miss. He writes the descriptions so well that it is easy to imagine what he is talking about. The book showed a different type of life style, an Indian life style with the belief of spirit and body. It was very funny throughout the book and also very sad at points in the book towards the end, which kept me interested in the book. The book was surprisingly better than I thought, for I had fun reading this book and hearing "the way" (Granpa's thoughts of what is right). This book will take you on a roller coaster ride where you will laugh and then drag you into death and make you cry. The book showed you what the Indians went through and what were some of the things they had to deal with.

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Summary: A great book about Native American life past and present
Review: The Education of Little Tree deserves four stars in my eyes. When you read this book, you learn about Native American life. You learn a lot about Cherokee life I didn't know about before because I had never read any books on Native American's life. This life is very interesting and different from our life and shows it through the eyes of Little Tree. Little Tree is the main character; he moves to live with his grandparent after his parents die. He lives life as a Cherokee boy would live, which is a different life than he has experienced. You see what life was and is like for a Native American living in the United States. You will go on journeys with Little Tree like fishing, going to the market and other places. You will laugh at this book, be saddened by the book but you will never forget this book, I know I won't. So, put this book on your books to read list, if you have one.

Rating:
Summary: It was a disapointed book
Review: My English teacher and my parents said that The Education of Little Tree is a great book to read. I thought I should read the book because all the other books my English teacher recommended to me were books I really got into. I really didn't understand the point to the book of Little Tree learning his lesson, but maybe I misread the whole point. In the end of the book it had more persistence to it because of the adventure and action--that's why I gave it a two. I think adults like this book better than kids do because they understand the book.

Rating:
Summary: Rather heartwarming and inspiring, if it weren't for the end
Review: Bang! Little Tree's life is unexpectedly torn apart, everyone he loves is dead. How can a little boy unused to such tragedy take all this so calmly? Despite the crappy ending, the characters come alive and are very funny at times. Overall a decent book

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Summary: A truly inspirational story
Review: I cannot give enough praise to this book. As I read this book, I can imagine myself sitting and listening to an old storyteller, hearing the voices of Little Tree, Granpa, Granma, Blu Boy, union soldiers, etc. Forrest Carter's choice of diction and description of the sounds in nature was instrumental in transforming the reader back into the time and surrounding of Little Tree and making us look at the beauty of nature, the sadness of losing family members and the bitterness of bigotry. As an autobiography, perhaps it lacks the dates, names and all other details needed to draw up a family tree or fill a logbook, but as a story, it is beautiful. It will make you laugh and cry and remember all those images most captivating to you.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful and Simple Story
Review: I came across this book by accident, read it in a couple of days and can say in all honesty it is now one of my all time favorites. Mr. Carter writes so simply and sweetly about love of family, nature, and innocence in a non-innocent world it will break your heart, but he also tickles your funny bone in unexpected places. I will treasure this book always and want to read it over and over. This is one book no one should miss! Little Tree is a rare find.

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Summary: I have a lot of trouble believing this one.
Review: I know this is supposed to be an autobiography, but there are too many things that I can't quite swallow. The background is beautifully described, but the characters are all one-dimensional.The few good characters - the grandparents, and the saintly peddlar Mr. Wine - are all noble and selfless and wise. They have no faults. Even if Grandpa makes moonshine, he's scrupulously careful to make good quality moonshine! The baddies, on the other hand - all the 'politicians,' the rich people in the car, the horrible religious people, the con man who sells the boy a calf which promptly drops down dead - are either stupid or they're such complete villains they're like something out of a cartoon. Think of the teacher in the orphanage: "She slapped her hand on her for'ad...dropped the picture...staggered back'ards a step or two..." (Has anyone at all ever seen a real teacher do that?)Even Little Tree himself - is he a real boy? He never feels like playing instead of working. He never tells a lie. He never gets into mischief. He brings a smile to the face of the bitter old recluse. If this is autobiography, then Mr. Carter was a little goody two-shoes. With all this, I have to say that the descriptions of the mountains, and the life they led there, are beautifully written. He conveys a real sense of reverence for both Nature and for the Native American Way. Even in the nature writing, though, I kept running into factual inconsistancies. For example: Deer don't mate in big mixed herds. And having eaten wild onions, I can tell him that they don't have more taste that 'tame' ones, they have less. Disappointing, maybe, but true.Finally, everyone dies off and the boy is left 'total alone' when he's nine years old, supposedly fending for himself. I'd like to know just how he got enough education to write a literate, conventionally well-organized book like "Little Tree"?Sorry, Mr. Carter. If this is your life, you've both exaggerated a lot and left a lot out.P.S. A friend has just told me "Little Tree" is an inspirational book and I shouldn't be so harsh. Yes, it's inspiring in some parts. I referred to the reverence he shows for Nature. But if a book is "inspirational" does that mean we have to leave our brains outside on the doorstep?

Rating:
Summary: A book of Wisdom and Beauty
Review: Grandma, Grandpa, Little Tree, their friends and foe leapt off the pages into my heart. Forrest Carter's writing is exquisite. But the books greatest gift is its wisdom. Grandpa's lessons about "The Way". "Take only what ye need. When ye take a deer, do not take the best...then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat." If you give a man "...something and didn't learn him anything...he would become dependent on you, then you taken away his character." Even more important are grandmother's lessons about the spirit mind. "Everybody has two minds. One of the minds has to do with the necessaries for body living" the other, the spirit mind is for understanding. "If you used the body-living mind to think greedy or mean...then you shrink up your spirit mind to a size no bigger'n a hickor'nut. The spirit mind is like any other muscle. If you used it it got bigger and stronger." If you care about human relations and the environment and want to reclaim your affinity with nature this is the book for you. A powerful and moving story.

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Summary: Visit Little Tree's secret place
Review: In the years since this book was published, controversy has erupted surrounding Forrest Carter's writing career. Some have accused him of not being a Cherokee, or of renouncing his Native American heritage when it suited him, then exploiting it later in life. There is also evidence that he was a speech writer for the Ku Klux Klan early in his career, before having a change of heart and writing the works for which he is better known. Does this affect one's reading of this book? That's a harder question. I can say for sure, though, that this book is the real deal. It is a deeply felt, honest (if occasionally idealized) account of what it meant to be raised Cherokee in the 1930's. It describes beautifully the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern North Carolina, and it is a powerful argument for a return to some of the old ways of the indigenous people of the American Southeast. Deeply moving, extremely humorous, and carefully told, this is one of America's greatest stories. Treasure it, and read it again and again.

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Summary: It Will Change You forever
Review: This was a beautiful book, easily readable, believable, childlike, spiritual, kharmic. It will change your view of the world forever and add depth and understanding. I recommend it for young, old and in between. It can be read in a day, it will be remembered for a lifetime.