Rating: 
Summary: The Diary of Nannie Litlle Rose
Review: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl
ƒº This book is wonderful! If you¡¦re looking for a book that¡¦s funny, sad, and has a little bit of history, than you¡¦ll love this one. It has funny moments, hardships, and a wonderful meaning to it. Made to go to a white mans school, change her name, and cut her hair Nannie Little Rose, goes through hard times, and has to make a decision. Should she go work for the Quakers, and leave her friend behind, or stay at school. What will she do? Find out by reading this one- of- a- kind- book! ƒº ƒº All Indians were forced on reservations where they were given very little food to eat. Then a white man came, and told the Indians that some of their children have a chance to go to a white mans school to get a better education. They were forced to cut their hair, change their names, and wear citizens¡¦ clothes; some of the Indian girls decide that they won¡¦t forget their past. But, when a Sioux Chief comes to take the children away, will Nannie go or stay? ƒº ƒº Personally, I really liked the book. It was the best book I¡¦ve read. I read lots of books, and like all of them, and I really like this one. I recommend this book to any one who enjoys a good laugh, and some history in the back, too! It¡¦s great, and hopefully you¡¦ll take my advice, and read it. If you don¡¦t like it, at least you gave it a chance.
Rating: 
Summary: What was Rinaldi thinking?
Review: I used to have a great deal of respect for Ann Rinaldi. I must own at least twenty of her books, and have read many more than once. This particular book, however, is an atrocity, and the fact that she continues to stand behind it is disgusting. I don't know what she was thinking when she wrote this awful book. I was pleased to see that one reviewer already mentioned the Oyate website, however they failed to mention that not only is this book on the "Books to Avoid" list, as are many classics such as "The Indian in the Cupboard" and "the Sign of the Beaver," but there are pages and pages of criticism, in fact one of the longest criticisms on the list. Too many problems to be listed in one small review. If you have any social conscience at all, you will not use this horrible book.
Rating:
Summary: Do not insult by reading this book!
Review: I realize that I am repeating what several reviewers have said before, but it must be said. That, in spite of the claims that this book is highly inaccurate and disrespectful, it should still get such high reviews. That people will still buy this book. It is just so insulting. I am shocked that the professional reviewers of this book would be so derelict in their responsibilities as to rate this book as a good representation of this period in history. If you think this book may be a good read for you or a youth, find out what the Native people this book supposedly speaks for think of it. Or read this review by several people, Native and non, that details the inaccuracies, disrespect, and insults that this book gives in representing a tragic period in Native history: http://oyate.org/books-to-avoid/myHeart.html. For those of you who think that the discrepancies in this book are merely the result of differing perspectives, you should know about one of the most shameful inaccuracies in this book: the telling of how Spotted Tail took his children away. First, Spotted Tail was a real person and this event actually happened, but the records (that Rinaldi should have studied if she did the proper research for this book) show that his children were very unhappy, so Spotted Tail did what any caring parent would do and brought them home to their family. Not only did they wish to go with him (in contrast with how Rinaldi tried to represent the event), but Pratt was unable to stop him, because it appeared there would be a general stampede of all the children at the school. (This is from the above mentioned review.) They were not happy there and to represent otherwise, especially by falsifying actual events and the feelings of actual people, shows a great contempt for the people who lived and experienced this. It is tantamount to spitting on their graves. While it is true that some may have had experiences like those depicted in this book, the records show otherwise. In order to faithfully represent the Carlisle school project, the feelings, experiences, and abuses of the children should be represented in keeping with this knowledge. This book symbolizes the disgusting treatment of outside cultures. It perpetuates and reinforces an environment of disrespect to the history and culture of other people. Those who read this book are reinforcing their own misconceptions brought about by television, popular fiction, and stereotypes. The Native people are still having their rights, beliefs, and traditions trampled to this day. This book only contributes and validates to this shameful treatment. If you really what to understand the Carlisle school project and the legacy it left to the Native people, do not insult them or your own integrity by reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: My Heart Is on the Gound
Review: Have you ever felt like your heart was on the ground? Nannie Little Rose did in My Heart Is on the Ground by Ann Rinaldi.
At the beginning of this book, Nannie Little Rose, Pretty Eagle, and Whiteshield go to a school to learn the white people's waysin1880. They learn to sew, cook, read white people's handwriting, write white people's handwriting, and other things the white people did as well. They had to go to this school because the white people had bought the land from them, the Sioux Indians. All of the Sioux children had to go to Pennsylvania to live there and to go to school there. Little Rose wanted to keep the Sioux Indian's way of life alive but she also likes the white people's way of life. In the middle of the book, Pretty Eagle tells Nannie Little Rose that she has trances. Whenever Pretty Eagle has a trance she faints. Pretty Eagle got the ability to have trances from her grandmother. During the summer Nannie Little Rose was invited to go and work on a farm with a Quaker family, but she said that she couldn't because she had to take care of Pretty Eagle. I liked this book quite a bit. It was interesting and it kept me at the "edge of my seat." I also liked the message of the book. The message was if you try you, can accomplish anything.
Rating:
Summary: The Diary of Nannie Litlle Rose
Review: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl
ƒº This book is wonderful! If you¡¦re looking for a book that¡¦s funny, sad, and has a little bit of history, than you¡¦ll love this one. It has funny moments, hardships, and a wonderful meaning to it. Made to go to a white mans school, change her name, and cut her hair Nannie Little Rose, goes through hard times, and has to make a decision. Should she go work for the Quakers, and leave her friend behind, or stay at school. What will she do? Find out by reading this one- of- a- kind- book! ƒº ƒº All Indians were forced on reservations where they were given very little food to eat. Then a white man came, and told the Indians that some of their children have a chance to go to a white mans school to get a better education. They were forced to cut their hair, change their names, and wear citizens¡¦ clothes; some of the Indian girls decide that they won¡¦t forget their past. But, when a Sioux Chief comes to take the children away, will Nannie go or stay? ƒº ƒº Personally, I really liked the book. It was the best book I¡¦ve read. I read lots of books, and like all of them, and I really like this one. I recommend this book to any one who enjoys a good laugh, and some history in the back, too! It¡¦s great, and hopefully you¡¦ll take my advice, and read it. If you don¡¦t like it, at least you gave it a chance.
Rating: 
Summary: My Heart is on the Ground:a review from a ten-year-old
Review: This book is really good. But if you like happy books, don't read it because it almost made me cry.
The book is about an Indian girl who is forced to change all of her ways, and learns many things to make her people proud.
Rating:
Summary: From a Librarian's Viewpoint
Review: The author has done a great disservice to all First Nation people as she has taken children's names from a grave yard and basically "spun yarns" about their lives. I have talked first hand with people from the Blackfoot Nation and they talked about what happened to their parents in boarding schools. It was not the "sugar coating" that Ms. Rinaldi speaks of at all. Many of the problems that First Nation people have may be traced back to forcing children to attend boarding school, such as poor parenting skills, by not having any examples of parents to follow while growing up. The White people treated the First Nation people with disrespect toward their culture, language, religion, and music. You could say history repeated itself with how the Whites treated all others different than themselves. When you read this book, make sure that you take this into account.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read!
Review: This book's about Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux girl. She goes to a boarding school for other native american girls to learn things. This book is very sad. Nannie's best friend in this book is, well....buried alive. Ok, let me explain, her friend had these visions and then she'd faint. But nobody really knew that. Nannie was away and her friend had a vision and fainted. They all thought she was dead so she was buried alive. Well, you'll find out on your own when you read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An Okay Book
Review: My Heart is on the Ground was an okay book. In the beginnig it was pretty boring, but later on it got better. I had to read it a couple of times to like it.
Rating:
Summary: Offensive and disrespectful
Review: Ann Rinaldi's My Heart Is on the Ground is a sugar-coated version of horrific atrocity that is still affecting native peoples today. My name is Autumn, and I am Ojibwe from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. My great-grandmother was sent to an Indian Boarding School in the early 1900's. Because of what she experienced there she did not teach her children how to speak our language, (Anishinaabemowin) nor did she teach them our traditional spirituality, but rather raised them to be Christians.
To find a book that treats the Boarding Schools almost like an enjoyable experience is degrading. To make things worse Ms. Rinaldi entirely misrepresents Indian Peoples. She uses stereotypes such as "braves" and "scalping party." The women in the story are treated horribly,"women's dreams are worth nothing," "he says I am not a warrior, just a girl" such things would have never been said by natives, where women are the life-givers, and thus respected at all times. Ms. Rinaldi writes, in the author's note, "...I am sure in whatever Happy Hunting Ground they now reside, they will forgive this artistic license, and even smile upon it." The term "Happy Hunting Ground" is a stereotype of native spirituality. Further more to say that children who suffered through this might smile upon it is insulting.
All and all this book is offensive and disrespectful; it makes Carlisle seem enjoyable to natives, when in actuality it was a living nightmare that had endured day after day. I would not recommend the book to anyone.
|
