My Heart is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl (Dear America)

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely shameful!
Review: I work in a Native American Art Museum and part of our mission statement is to provide education and information to the general public (especially elementary school children) about Native Americans, past and present. I was first alerted to this book by Oyate Press and it was heartbreaking to read it. It is a travesty for all the reasons stated above--moreso because it is aimed at children. Ms. Rinaldi, and Scholastic Books, our job of education is difficult enough without this "white"-washed and way-so inaccurate fiction masquerading under the guise of a 'diary.' I, too, do not condone censorship, but I shudder at the thought that many young people (and older ones too) will be reading this book and assuming that that was how it was. Carlisle and other Indian schools were not like that at all. MY HEART IS ON THE GROUND is not only stereotypical garbage, it is racist pablum.

Rating:
Summary: A single star is too high a rating for this atrocious book!
Review: It is astonishing that a work perpetuating this level of misinformation and stereotyping against Native Americans would be written and published in 1999, much less touted as a quality addition to the publisher's "Dear America" series. Replete with stereotypical broken English, patronizing attitudes, and offensive cliches, <My Heart Is on the Ground> purports to be the diary of a Lakota boarding school student at the Carlisle Indian school in 1880. Instead, it exploits a tragic period of North American history, which reverberates in the lives of Native people today. Ann Rinaldi's pattern of exploitation and appropriation of Native American voice, names, identities, and histories is among the many problems with this book. The centerpiece of this pattern is Rinaldi's shameless taking of Indian children's names from their gravestones at Carlisle's school cemetery for characters in her "diary." She adds to this act of desecration by imposing her own uninformed voice and colonialist notions on Native lives and cultures. Rinaldi's title <My Heart Is on the Ground> is also appropriated, taken from a Cheyenne proverb, which is removed from its cultural context and misrepresented throughout the book. Furthermore, Rinaldi is guilty of appropriating ideas, scenarios, and/or text from other sources, including a basic publication about the Carlisle Indian school, Richard Henry Pratt's <Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904> (edited by Robert M. Utley, originally published by Yale University Press, 1964). Excerpts from this book, which is based on the Carlisle Indian school founder's memoirs, are shown below with comparable passages from Rinaldi to illustrate the pattern of appropriation: "Spotted Tail, you are a remarkable man. Your name has gone all over the United States. It has even gone across the great water." Battlefield and Classroom, 222 "Then Mister Captain Pratt tell Spotted Tail he is re-mark-able man. His name has gone all over Unit-ed States and even across the great waters." Rinaldi, 25 "Captain, thee is undertaking a great work here. Thee will need many things. Thee must remember if thee would receive thee must ask. Will thee take thy pencil and put down some of the things thee needs very much just now and the cost?" Battlefield and Classroom, 235 "Thee is undertaking a great work here. Thee will need many things. If thee would receive, thee must ask. Will thee take thy pencil and put down some of the things thee needs very much and the cost?" Rinaldi, 45 Rinaldi merely rewrites Pratt's text into stereotypical broken English or transparently fictionalizes it, as in substituting words such as "Miss-us" for "Miss." She fails to credit Pratt and other sources for material; instead, the information (re)appears as her own copyright-protected authorship. I recommend that readers relegate this travesty to the mountainous pile of stereotypical publications written about American Indians. Children, the targeted audience of this "diary," deserve better. Outstanding publications about aspects of boarding school life are available, including works by Francis La Flesche, Luther Standing Bear, Basil Johnston, Polingaysi Qoyawayma, Brenda Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima. Furthermore, if in doubt about the American Indian stereotypes pervading Rinaldi's book, choose selections from the extensive literature available on racism and stereotyping.

Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I really liked this book and did not see how it discriminated against Indians.

Rating:
Summary: Zero! This book is a travesty!!!
Review: With all of the facts that are coming out now about what -really- happened in the much-romanticized "wild west" and "frontier" days, I was shocked and dismayed to see this badly researched, Anglocentric travesty being foisted on children (or anyone else). The book design and ambiguously worded intro could lead readers to believe this was a transcription of an actual diary. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't believe in banning books, but think this should be held up as an example of the worst. The author has the audacity to suggest that maybe the spirits of those who died at Carlisle and other places would "smile" to see her creation. If you want to give your kid a good book about Indians, start them out with books by Indian authors, or at least something by Mari Sandoz.

Rating:
Summary: This was a great book!
Review: I thought this book was excellent in every way of the childs point of veiw but the thing that kept me from making this a five star book was the interpretation that Ann Rinaldi gave of the schools. It shows she did very little research on the indian schools, especilly when Carlisle was such a big target. To make things worse, I am Native American and I am Sioux. My great grandmother was in an Indian "school" growing up and i think this school sounded just "peachy" compared to what she wen through. Otherwise, the book was good and Little Rose was a great character. The book would have been better if not perfect if Mrs. Rinaldi would have put more effort into accuracy and research! And I would also like to add, that all of you who thought this book was great in every way have much to learn about the indian ways. Do not give this to someone as a gift if they are strong in Native American history and facts, although you would be trying to be nice, it would only hurt more

Rating:
Summary: A decent yarn but white-washed
Review: The story is moving at points but seriously misrepresents numerous aspects of native American culture.

Rating:
Summary: Good at first, but got bad. REAL bad
Review: Ok, I thought it was a pretty good book. But I thought it was horrible what happened to Lucy Pretty Eagle. The part that REALLY grossed me out was the entry on the top of page 135, and the middle of the next page. Otherwise, it was one of the better books I've read, but that just was sick. I felt sick reading that, and don't plan on reading it again.

Rating:
Summary: Good!
Review: I liked it! It was a very good book! I suppose it wasn't historicaly accurate and Charlsie was mutch more harsh than Ann Rindinaly discribed. It WAS NOT well reaserched. eather that or Nannie Little Rose was to happy and cheerful too notice! Besides that, it was cool!

Rating:
Summary: Zero stars for this colonialist fantasy.
Review: This is the worst--the very worst--children's book I have ever read. I cannot say this strongly enough-- is more than just a 20th-century Euro-American colonialist fantasy superimposed on a 12-year-old Lakota child in 1880. By maintaining that atrocities never existed at Carlisle Indian Industrial School (where the stated philosophy was "Kill the Indian and Save the Man"), and putting those assertions in the voice of a Lakota child in a book for children, <My Heart Is On the Ground> is the ripping open of a century-long wound in Indian Country. The pain to the Indian families of the children who died at Carlisle is made even worse by Rinaldi's copying the children's names from the tombstones at the Carlisle cemetery and using those names for her characters, including Nannie Little Rose. If this author had written a fictional diary about, say, Auschwitz, and the protagonist's name was, say, Ann Frank, and in this book the author maintained that nothing bad ever happened at Auschwitz, and in this book Ann Frank was released from Auschwitz and went on to become a teacher, would Scholastic have published it? As Nannie Little Rose says, "Maybe so." This insulting whitewash of one of the worst episodes of American history should be immediately recalled and a public apology issued to the Native American community

Rating:
Summary: De best!!!!
Review: This is the most charming book I have ever read. All my friends loved it too. It shows well-written description of what the Indians went through. I also think that all the other Dear America books are awesome too!!

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