The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Dear America) - Hardcover

Grade 4-8-Sarah Nita, 13, tells the story of the Navajo's forced 400-mile Long Walk from their ancestral homeland through winter snow to Fort Sumner. The confusion, fear, and suffering of The People are drawn with clarity and immediacy. A factual afterword gives a larger picture of the times with captioned period photographs of the Navajo. The story is rich with details of Native life gracefully woven into the telling of events. Characterizations are complete, even for minor participants. The publication information is at the rear of the book, as it is for all titles in this series, which has given rise to a general criticism that the stories are easily mistaken for actual period diaries. The CIP classification is 813.54; granted, that is American fiction, but placing this book in the nonfiction section of the library only adds to the confusion. The author's comments allow readers to believe that Sarah Nita was a real girl ("born in 1851"). All the same, it is a compelling story, and its power will attract readers.
Cris Riedel, Ellis B. Hyde Elementary School, Dansville, NY
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