The Education of Little Tree

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Summary: One of the most memorable stories I have ever come across.
Review: This is a bittersweet tale told in a simple voice with great poignancy and power. Despite every opportunity, Forrest Carter never portrays himself or any of the many characters he encounters as victims. He weaves a nearly dream-like account of life close to the Earth, of great respect and admiration for all things of nature, and the fine line between the "thinking" world of white men and the "knowing" world of the red man. This book will make you giggle and make you cry, but mostly it is a powerful cathartic medicine for those afflicted with the maladies of the modern world.

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Summary: Achingly beautiful and life altering book! A Classic!
Review: I had this book on my bookshelf for over a year before I finally took it down to read. Mere mortal words cannot describe the beauty, wisdom, spiritual depth, joy and sadness in this little book. I laughed; I cried; I smiled; I thought; I read it aloud to my husband and I cried some more. This is truly a classic that every human being should have to read. I'm passing it along to my daughters and hope they read it to their children.

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Summary: Living With Clarity
Review: I have read this book 5 times. It calls to me every year or so, and, wondering why, since it always leaves me in tears, I have decided that the simple, clear integrity of the lives of the characters in this book appeals to something deep inside of me. Raised a cultural Christian, with all of the "bible training" and Sunday school attendance pins that go along with that background, I was always troubled by the guilt and shame for just being human that orthodox Christianity attempted to cast upon me. I realized, as an adult, after much study and soul searching, that we are all a simple part of a complex universe, and, deserve to live in it fully, with all of the joys and sorrows encountered along the way, and, be able to question every single fascinating bauble that is presented to us by fate. I am also comfortable in the knowledge that my soul is part of something finite and larger than this life. I do not have to pay dues to a church or a judgemental diety. Little Tree and his kin knew this. They felt no shame or guilt unless it was self inflicted. Little Tree's simple life, religion and expectations, with a heritage of love, allowed him to live his life with crystal clear vision and peace. This book is written in a style that lets one's soul soar with expectation and joy, if only for the short time that it takes to read it. God, please grant me the grace to raise my children like Little Tree.

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Summary: The Education of Little Tree
Review: What a poignant, heart-wrenching book Forest Carter has written. I would hope that everyone could read this, and understand the futility and despicability of ethnic HATE, and learn to love their fellow man. Little Tree is one of my all-time favorite books. Even when I read it for the 6th and 7th time, the tears refuse to be stifled.

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Summary: Growing Up
Review: I have enjoyed all of Forrest Carter's writings, but this one is above all the best. It is a shame we don't have him anymore. This book will evoke laughter, sadness, anger, and many more emotions in each chapter. I agree this book should be read by ALL young people. It shows how good morals, teachings and lots of love will enable a person to achieve all he can. No matter how tough life can get, if you have these basics as a child you will survive and become stronger.

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Summary: My feelings about this book
Review: The Education of Little Tree Review

This novel, The Education of Little Tree, is about a 5 years old Cherokee boy named Little Tree who has to go live with his grandparents. Living with his grandparents in a cabin, in the woods taught the way of life and how to survive in the wilderness. This whole book is about his life with his grandparents as he grows up.
I think this is a great book that everyone should read. This book will make you laugh at some points, but will also make you cry at others. This book made me laugh when Little Tree and Granpa were looking for Mr. Chunk and Mr. slick in the woods. This book also made me sad when Granpa is telling the story about the farm in the clearing. I also like this book because it's very descriptive and well written. The author wrote this novel with great detail. You will be able to imagine and see every thing the characters are doing. The author puts so many details into this book so you know exactly what something or someone looks like. The author really made the characters come to life with the details about their personalities and about their outer appearance. In one part of the book the author explains an extremely detailed scene where Granpa and Little Tree are spending the night under the star-filled sky with a full moon and fog over the mountains in the distance. When I read that scene I felt I was right there under the stars with Granpa and Little Tree. This is an exciting novel that everyone should look into reading. This book is one of the best books I've ever read.

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Summary: The Education of Little Tree Book Review
Review: The Education of Little Tree, (supposedly) by Forrest Carter, was an excellent book to learn from, but not as enjoyable to read for one's own pleasure. The story is of a boy named Little Tree of Native American descent whose parents die. He is sent to live with his grandparents, and there, he learns about nature and the Cherokee way of living in harmony with the earth. He learns about racism and what it means to be different from others. Later on, he is taken from the home he loves with his grandparents to an orphanage where he is treated badly because he is a bastard and a Cherokee.
This book teaches a hard lesson about poverty, that people should not want things they cannot ever have and that dreams are a bad thing. This is shown when a sharecropper is forced to whip his own children because they dreamed of fancy things that they would never have. One also learns about discrimination through an interesting point of view, a young child's eyes who does not understand why the people are laughing at him; he merely thinks they are being friendly. This book contains excellent morals and values, and is an excellent read for in class. Although the book is very slow-paced, this helps to give it the nature of the simple view of a six-year old which aids the reader in understanding Little Tree's point of view. It would not be a good book for solo reading, because the plot is secondary, and there is not quite one story, but series of small events, each pertaining to Little Tree's gaining knowledge. These are more fit to be discussed in groups and taken in small amounts. However, this was one of the only books I have read that has made me cry because of the sense that the protagonist is helpless. The fact that he does not understand the racism, and why what he does is "bad" makes it a tear-drawing read. Issues such as death are covered, as Little Tree's grandparents die, as well as all that remains of his old life. Surprisingly, the author was a member of the (...), a white supremacist, association that promotes racism, who took on a pen name of Forrest Carter instead of his real name Asa Earl Carter. Because of this, throughout the book, characters accept discrimination as their "place" and forbid their children from attempting to rise in society (as in the sharecropper example before). This shows that the (...) member's opinion was that they should learn to accept being what he considered them, "inferior".
This book covers some difficult issues that are better to be discussed, than read on one's own. It is an excellent book to cry over, and an excellent book to learn from, but not a particularly excellent read just for enjoyment, as the story is not thrilling nor interesting to anyone who is not particularly interested in Native American culture.

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Summary: What I Learned From Little Tree
Review: Unlike the reader from LA, I fail to see why the University of Mexico Press should feel obligated to "alert" the reader of Forrest Carter's ugly past. I think that removing the "True Story" subtitle was all that had to be done. After finding out about Carter's hideous background, I read the book backwards and was relieved to find no hidden racist manifestos or prayers to Satan. When reading the book frontwards what I discovered was a potentially life-changing, hilarious, sad and ultimately uplifting tale that left me convinced of the universal beauty of the human spirit. As far as racial and cultural issues go, this book - if anything - made me even more understanding of different cultures and more sensitive to the background of Native Americans. In fact, I was so inspired after I turned over the last page, that I hastily filled up all of the blank pages at the end with my own reflections. I remember exclaiming to a friend who walked by that I had just finished one of the best books I had ever read. Of course I felt somewhat betrayed when I first learned the truth behind the book's author (this morning). I was also very disappointed - and still am - that such a wonderfully inspiring plot and cast of characters never actually graced the often-uninspiring "real world" in which we live. But then I looked back at the notes I had written upon completing the book. My first thought had been "As a society we need to understand and tolerate our differences." The irony here - that a former KKK leader had inspired these notes - did not escape me. Rather, I discovered that I was still learning from "Little Tree." If even the most ugly and evil people can harbor inside them a potential to inspire strangers to understand and even "kin" each other despite our differences, then isn't there hope for the human race? Society today is sick with racism and disrespect for each other and for nature. We need to change that, and reading "Little Tree" is as good a first step as any. Many famous writers - while troubled or despicable as individuals - have still managed to pass down priceless bits of beauty or wisdom that have touched and will continue to touch the lives of millions of readers in generations to come. The University of Mexico Press could always change the publisher's note on the back cover to: "Former KKK leader lies about his past." Heck, they could even insert an author's picture of old Forest in a white hood burning a cross. They could. But all that would happen is less people would read "Little Tree" and, unfortunately, miss out on a great lesson in tolerance, love and understanding. "The Education of Little Tree" is masterpiece; you will laugh a lot, cry some, and leave it feeling like you have gained more wisdom than many people will gain in a lifetime.

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Summary: I focused on the book, not the author.
Review: The Education of Little Tree is presented as the autobiography of the author, but it is a fictional story of a 5-year-old orphan boy named Little Tree who is raised by his full Cherokee Grandma and his half Cherokee Grandpa in their small mountain home during the depression.

The Education of Little Tree was originally published by Delacorte Press in 1977 and reprinted in 1986 by the University of New Mexico Press. The author, Asa Carter, adopted the pseudonym, Bedford Forest Carter, when he started his career as a writer in 1970 at the age of 45.

Carter is an engaging storyteller who draws his themes of courage, honor, kinship, and blood feud from his knowledge of the Civil War and his Cherokee heritage. Because Carter falsely claimed his book was an autobiography, the reader may wonder what else in the book is false. For example, how do we know if he wrote accurately about the Cherokee's history or life style?

Most of Little Tree's education takes place at his grandparent's small farm, where his Grandma (Bonnie Lee) and Grandpa (Wales) not only teach Little Tree that they love him, they teach him "The Way" of the Cherokee. His Grandpa explains one aspect of "The Way" by saying, "Take only what ye need. When ye take the deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat." Quote from page 9.

His half-Scottish Grandpa also teaches Little Tree how to run a whiskey still, a trade his Grandpa's Scottish ancestors practiced for over 100 years. His Grandpa believes that Little Tree needs to learn a trade and whiskey making is the only trade his Grandpa can teach him. Their still is their only source of cash, since the European settlers have forcibly taken almost all of the land the Cherokee once occupied in seven southern states.
Little Tree's Grandpa believes it is important for him to know the history of the Cherokee. He tells him about the 18,000 members of the tribe who were forced by the US government in 1838 to abandon their family farms and walk the 900 mile "Trail of Tears" from Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee to the "Cherokee Nation" in Oklahoma. They were forced to walk during the four coldest months of the year and at least one fifth died of starvation and exposure.

The tribal members at the time of the "Trail of Tears" were not nomadic savages but a people who built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers. Many Cherokee, like Little Tree's great Grandma, had intermarried with European settlers.

The 18,000 who were forced to walk the "Trail of Tears" to Oklahoma were part of the 100,000 Indians forced to give up their homes and lands to European settlers and move west of the Mississippi. Of course the "Cherokee Nation" the US government promised the Cherokee was only briefly established in Oklahoma before white land hunters broke it up.
Little Tree's ancestors didn't trust the US government, so they were among the one thousand Cherokee who hid out in the Smokey Mountains while the Cherokee were being gathered up to walk to Oklahoma. Little Tree's Grandpa frequently reminds him to never trust a politician.

When Little Tree's grandparents teach him how to outwit government bureaucrats, Christian Missionaries, and big city mobsters, the humor is slapstick comedy. When they read and discuss the classics of Western Literature around their fire at night, their comments are insightful and amusing.

The beautiful descriptions of the "Cherokee Hills" illustrate their tremendous love, reverence, and respect for their land. The following, from page 131, is Little Tree's description of one morning when he was on the top of a mountain.
"There is not anything like dawn from the top of the high mountain.¼ The sky was a light gray, and the birds getting up for the new day made fuss and twitter in the trees. Away across a hundred miles, the mountaintops humped like islands in the fog that floated below us.¼Above the rim of the farthest mountain, on the end of the world, a pink streak whipped across, a paintbrush swept a million miles across the sky.¼The mountain rim looked like it had caught fire; then the sun cleared the trees. It turned the fog into a pink ocean, heaving and moving down below."

The author, Asa Earl Carter was born in Alabama in 1925. Carter did not become an orphan at age five, nor did his grandparents raise him, but Carter did grow up in the same area and during the same time period as the hero of his story, Little Tree. The story Carter wrote about Little Tree is clearly not Carter's autobiography, but he writes with love, understanding and compassion about the Cherokee. Carter description of Little Tree's life with his grandparents made me wonder how many of the readers of the book wish they could have had such loving grandparents.

Although Carter's book is fiction, The Education of Little Tree describes in detail the incredible strength, tender compassion, high intelligence, fearless courage and delightful humor Little Tree's grandparents exhibit as they work hard to survive under difficult circumstances. I wonder if Carter wants his readers to accept his description of Little Tree's grandparents as a description of the Cherokee as a tribe. If so, he has paid the Cherokee a tremendous compliment.



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Summary: Not a True Story! Wait Until You Find Out About the Author!
Review: I have to give the book 5 stars, because as a novel, it is up there with the best: well-written, compelling, sweet, interesting characters, thought provoking, educational.

However, this book is described as being a "true story." With that in mind, and because I so enjoyed the book, I began to reesearch Forrest Carter. What I found was that these events never occurred to him; additionally, he was a racist, a drunk, and a criminal (not to mention a famous speech writer).

I am amazed that he was capable of writing a novel with such feeling. I don't know how he did it. If my comments seem bitter and untrue, search for yourself. I was shocked what I found by simply doing a search on "Forrest Carter" in Google.