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

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Summary: I think this is a very touching book.
Review: I think this is a very touching book.It has so much feeling in it.I almost cried when...well I better not tell you.You have to read thebook.It really makes you think about indians.

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Summary: Completely Wrong
Review: I'd like to repeat what others have said, that this book is a completely inaccurate and harmful representation of the horrors of the native american boarding schools, especially Carlisle and Pratt. Please do not give this to unknowing children to read!

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Summary: This book was very good
Review: Sad, happy, and tragic this story did have a happy ending.I take back the five stars, it should have 100!

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Summary: Massive and harmful disinformation
Review: I am not the kind of person who espouses censorship of any kind, but this book is not only degrading to Native Americans in its use of tone and language, the facts presented about Carlisle are highly inaccurate. One glaring example: in reality, not only did Spotted Tail's children want to leave with him, but many, many other children did as well. Trying to put white icing on one of the most horrible American tragedies is extremely disrespectful of Rinaldi.

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Summary: This book misrepresents the boarding school experience.
Review: Ann Rinaldi's book MY HEART IS ON THE GROUND takes the troublesome Lucy Pretty Eagle legend and brings it to life in a shockingly disrespectful attempt to entertain youngsters. Rinaldi presents an historical novel that completely misrepresents the boarding school experience of a young Lakota Sioux girl. Several of her characters bear the actual names of children buried in Indian Cemetery of Carlisle, PA. For many years, the U.S. Army War College's tour booklet of the Carlisle Indian School grounds misidentified the old teachers' quarters as student housing and it was believed that girls had roomed there. Known as the Coren Apartments, these former teachers' quarters are still in use as housing for students of the U.S. Army War College. During the Indian School days, 1879-1918, the girls' dormitory occupied the area directly across the yard from the teachers' quarters, where the tennis courts now stand. For several decades, there have been rumors that Lucy Pretty Eagle haunts her former rooms in the Coren Apartments -- when in truth, Indian girls never lived there. Stories of tennis shoes found mysteriously tied together after a restless night, pictures rearranged on the walls, cooking smells wafting from an empty kitchen, and doors opening and closing in the quarters believed to have been Lucy's home over a hundred years ago - still persist. U.S. Army War College students housed in the Coren Apartments within the past several decades insist their quarters are haunted by "Lucy." Lucy Pretty Eagle came to Carlisle with the name of "Take the Tail" (translated from her native Lakota language). In this book, Ann Rinaldi has fashioned her story around a central character, Nannie Little Rose, and her friend, Lucy Pretty Eagle, modeled after a fictitious, romanticised version of Take the Tail. The publication of this book reminds us that not only was Indian identity shaped by non-Indians during the four decades of Carlisle, Indian identity continues to be defined by non-Indian writers today. These Lucy Pretty Eagle stories embody the one-dimensional Indian stereotypes that so influence mainstream ideas about Indian identity. Until their stories are written by Indian people themselves, these stereotypes will persist

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Summary: I felt I was part of the book.
Review: This book was the selection for our mother-daughter book club this month. We all loved the book because we got very interested in the friendship between Nannie Little Rose and Lucy Pretty Eagle. This book helps you realize a lot about Indian culture. The Indian children had to leave everything they knew and learn the ways of white people who really did not understand how beautiful the old Indian customs were.The book has a very shocking event in it which we talked about a lot.The book was sad, but it was beautifully written. We would highly recommend it, especially to those who wish to understand more about how one culture changes another. Ann Rinaldi does a great job showing you how Nannie Little Rose slowly learned how to write in a different language. We also saw how the Indian children helped each other through difficult times.

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Summary: A good Dear America book.
Review: This was a good Dear America book. Little Rose, a Sioux girl, is twelve and lives on a reservation with her family in the Dakotas. She is sent away to a white man's school in Pennsylvania where Indian children are taught the white people's ways. Little Rose has to pick a white girl's name, so she picks Nannie and becomes Nannie Little Rose. Her teacher gives her a diary to write in and she tells about some things that happen to her at school, including something sad that happens to her friend. This was a great book

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Summary: Great book!!!!!!!!!
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!! the reason why i rated it a 4 was because of how sad it was. IT WAS STILL A GOOD BOOK THO!!!! i dont know what these other people are thinking giving it less than 4 stars...i guess they cant handle a sad book. i highly recommend this book!!!!!!!!!!

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Summary: Contemporary Native American singer bashes this book
Review: The boarding school system this book is about was one of the darkest, ugliest moments in the history of US/American Indian relations. Rinaldi's work glosses over this in the worst ways. Native Americans across the US and Canada are aware of this book. In 2000, a Kickapoo singer wrote and recorded a song based on the criticism of the book. To hear the song and read the lyrics, go to her website. Her name is Arigon Starr and click on Audio/Lyrics. The song is listed there. A critical review of the book was published at the Oyate website, and in leading educator's journals such as Multicultural Review, Multicultural Literature, and Rethinking Schools.

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Summary: Miseducates Children
Review: This book is rife with historical inacurracies and is highly offensive to anyone who knows the truth about the horrors committed in Indian boarding schools. As a descendent of one of the pupils/inmates of the Carlisle School, where this abysmal book is set, I urge you not to expose any children to this gross misrepresentation of the toture many children endured in an effort to "civilize" Native American peoples.