Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing execution of a story with potential
Review: I am a freelance quiz writer, and I picked up this book for one of my assignments. The cover blurb looked very interesting, and I began reading it with eager anticipation. Two hours later I put the book down, disappointed.Rain's story has lots of potential, and takes place in an interesting family setting. Rain's mother has been dead for several years. Rain and her brother & his girlfriend live with their grandfather, who is vacationing in Las Vegas during the book. Their father is posted on Guam. The book begins on the night her best friend Galen is killed, and then jumps ahead six months to his birthday (July 4) for the action. Rain's Aunt Georgia wants to run an Indian Camp, and Rain doesn't want to attend. Her brother's girlfriend asks her to photograph the event for a story Flash, an intern, is writing about the camp. Aunt Georgia's concept of Indian Camp is very vague; even when Rain and Flash observe the camp in an attempt to write a feature story, Indian Camp never becomes anything more than nebulous. Georgia wants the campers to build a pasta bridge, write, design a webpage, and take a long fieldtrip to Minnesota (from Kansas) to watch an Indian rice harvest. Aunt Georgia feels these are important activities, but doesn't ever bother to explain why. Even Rain and Flash's conversations about the activities shed little or no light on the importance. Galen's mother--a dislikeable character in all but one incident--is trying to stop funding of Indian Camp. For Rain, the Indian Camp conflict and her difficulty in dealing with Galen's death, combine to create problems between her and Galen's mother. Add to that rumours that are certainly intended to be scandalous (but which fall far short) and the situation becomes a stress point for Rain. This book deals with more issues--multiculturalism, coping with death, teenage pregnancy, pregnancy out of wedlock, and family relationships--than can be handled in its skimpy 135 pages. The author had a great story idea, with the best of intentions, but lacked follow-through. Add to that the way the book jumps from topic to topic with little continuity, and the journal entries which, more often than not, add nothing to the plot, and you have a very unsatisfactory structure for a novel. There are interesting elements in the book, though in my opinion the 14-year-old characters don't really act 14. If you can find this at your local library, go ahead and read it, if you wade through the author's lackluster writing style. Just don't waste money purchasing it. You'll be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Believable Rain
Review: I read this book almost a year ago, but it still lingers with me. I think the main reason is Cassidy Rain Berghoff, the fourteen-year-old title character. After losing her best friend, Galen, in a tragic way, Cassidy shuts out the world. Months pass before she grows to realize that she has to get in touch with the world again, even if it's through a job. I was really impressed by Cassidy's bravery and strength. The author did a great job making this character REAL. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Cassidy. The author made me care about her - about what would happen to her. The book doesn't make it easy for Cassidy to work things out. For example, while working as a photographer in an Indian camp run by her Aunt Georgia, Cassidy finds herself torn between getting involved in an emotional issue and staying professional and objective. Kids are faced with hard decisions all the time, so I found it very easy to relate to Cassidy and what she goes through. I recommend RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME to anyone who loves a good story and good characters. This book has both!
Rating:
Summary: A Unique Book with Lots of Appeal!
Review: I've been spending time this summer with this book. There is a great deal I can say, but I'll try to be brief. The author has done something I've not seen before. She has created a webpage that serves as a companion to the book. At the page, you can visit Rain's room (Rain is the 14-year-old protagonist in the book) and learn more about her and her interests. For example, there is a "Bookshelf" with a list of five or so books a 14-year-old girl might be interested in, and a "Links" section that contains links to other sites that Rain might visit (she's a sci-fi fan and photographer, so there are links to sci-fi and photography sites). Smith does the same for each of the characters in the book, but she also does a chapter-by-chapter section that is equally rich. Also on the site is all that behind-the-scenes info some readers like, such as how the story was developed, why a certain element was included, etc. Readers who are also avid web surfers will enjoy reading the book and visiting the site. The URL for the companion site is: . The book itself is a wonderfully written story about a girl whose heritage is "Muscogee Creek-Cherokee and Scots-Irish on Mom's side, Irish-German-Ojibway on Dad's" (from page 20). Each chapter opens with an entry from Rain's journal. In the story, readers learn that Rain's mother recently died, and a few months later, her best friend dies when he is hit by a car. While coping with loss is a significant theme, there are others as well. Rain is one of only a handful of Native Americans in her small mid-western town. Her connections to her Native heritage are evident in several ways. She talks about stereotypes at Thanksgiving, and the use of Native American imagery as mascots for sports teams. But Smith's style of presenting these issues is such that Rain isn't preachy or righteous when she talks about these issues. I said I'd be brief, and this is already going long, so I'll end with a strong recommendation for the book. It will appeal to readers who want books about contemporary Native Americans and readers who are techies, but it is also a beautifully written story about a teen thinking about being kissed for the first time and working through tensions in her relationships with her friends.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting new talent
Review: On New Year's Eve, the eve of her fourteenth birthday, Rain Berghoff kisses her best friend Galen and discovers that she likes him as a boyfriend as well as loving him as a friend. When her birthday dawns she discovers that the friend who helped her through the death of her mom, the friend who put Worf cutouts in many of the downtown store windows with signs on them telling people to wish Rain Berghoff a happy birthday, the friend who had always been there for her --is dead. Unable to face his funeral, she is also unable to face her life, moving in a dark cloud through the months until summer. Her Aunt Georgina, a retired science teacher has organized an Indian camp that her brother wants her to attend. Galen's mother, a politician, is dead set against the town paying any of the expenses and tries to use Rain's cancellation of camp participation against Aunt Georgina. Her brother's fiancée, who runs the local paper gives Rain the perfect "out" when she asks her to photograph the camp for the newspaper making it a conflict of interest for Rain to be one of the "campers." Teamed up with reporter "Flash," she comes to recognize who she is in this powerful and moving first novel. Smith is also the author of the children's picture book Jingle Dancer.
Rating:
Summary: Spanning powwows to laptops
Review: Rain may not be her Indian name, but the easy reality of powwow references (where the birthday necklace comes from), a soon-to-be-born niece Aiyana (named after Rain's Cherokee great-great-grandmother) and a special Indian summer camp places at least one foot of this wonderful novel firmly in contemporary Indian country. Not solely there, however. Another foot is just as firmly set in teenage country, from musings about the significance of a kiss to the whirring of laptops. Then of course there is the mostly white, midwestern town setting of Hannesburg, Rain's home with her brother and grandfather. It is into this home that she retreats after her best friend tragically dies in an accident, and from which she eventually garners enough strength to reemerge and engage with with her community and the world. It is refreshing to have issues acknowledged without being preachy or offering excuses. Alcohol, teenage pregnancy and ethnic identity are all part of the known fabric of life. These issues are not dwelt upon, but neither are they ignored. Curious to see how this all looks? Then explore a powerful integration of imagination and technology at the author's website created specifically to support and extend one's enjoyment of this book.
Rating:
Summary: A talent to watch and enjoy.
Review: Rain's life reflects some of the conflicts we have to get through and they, in return, help us grow even when we don't realize it. The insights she has show a strong character that won't or can't be closed because of who she is and what she means to those who love her. This is a tender story of a young girl growing up and having to deal with one of life's sad paths. It is an excellant book and we all need Cracker Jack.
Rating: 
Summary: What the reader brings is important too
Review: The reviewer who is a freelance writer seems intent on bashing this book. Not liking a book is one thing, calling an author names is another. RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME is certainly not for every reader. The book is about an Indian and follows the Native American non-linear process throughout the book. Think of the metaphor of the dream catcher--short pieces of thread connecting to another thread finally forming a complex weave that is strong. And there's the book. Sure there are disconnected (for a while)actions, thoughts, etc. Characters enter and leave. But each thing forms a part of the whole. The prose in this book is lyrical, the characters engaging and book well thought out. The reader has to do a little work too. In my book, that's a good thing.
Rating:
Summary: Rain is not my indian name
Review: This is a wonderfull book! I found myself agreeing with Rain very often! I am a Cherokee Indian, and my friends and family continually told me how much I am like the character!
I really enjoyed reading this book. I think that its not just for Native Americans, but others should read it as well, maybe youll learn something about us!
Rating:
Summary: Wordcraft Circle Winner, Oklahoma Book Award Finalist
Review: Written with an authentic Native literary structure, Smith's debut novel is perhaps most notable because ethnic identity is integrated rather than the sole focus of the book. Instead, her protagonist, Rain Berghoff, is a young mixed blood teen struggling to heal after the death of her best friend by reconnecting to her intertribal and German American small-town community. That challenge to heal is her primary conflict. The two subplots are about financing for a local summer camp for Indian youth, based on real-life camps of the same kind, using the same approach, and the adjustment to her older brother's new baby, nodding to the continuity of life and love. Yet Rain's story is told with wit and warmth, deserving particular praise for its down-home Indian humor and realistically contemporary teen voice and vision. At its heart, this is a story about the importance of family and community, how they help us heal and become more of the best of who we are. For this novel, Smith was named a 2001 Writer of the Year by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. She'd also been a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award for her previous title, Jingle Dancer. This title is used in middle school classrooms and college courses with a multicultural focus. A break-through book from a young Native American author staying true to her culture and her readers. Don't miss this one
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