Sweetgrass

Living on the western Canadian prairie in the nineteenth century, Sweetgrass, a fifteen-year-old Blackfoot Indian girl, saves her family from a smallpox epidemic and proves her maturity to her father.

Sweetgrass, a 15-year-old Blackfoot girl, longs to be married like the other girls her age, and she has a young warrior in mind, Eagle-Sun. Her father feels she is too young for marriage, but over a difficult year for their tribe, which include natural disasters, encounters with white settlers, fights with other tribes, and a smallpox epidemic, she proves her courage, intelligence, and maturity. "Vivid characters bring the culture of the Dakota Indians in the 1830s to life through this richly patterned historical novel An unusually fine first novel." — Booklist (starred review) "A masterpiece combining elements of an historical novel, a native American, a survival, and a coming-of-age novel .Will invite re-reading." — School Library Journal (starred review)

Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1837, Sweetgrass, a Blackfoot girl with a lively mind, restlessly awaits permission to marry. Because her father is a man of means and is fond of her, she can reasonably presume that a desirable match will be made. But when? And can she respect its full effect on her future? Much of this coming-of-age story shows how Sweetgrass learns to value her role in the cultural pattern of her people, the ``beaded design.'' At the same time, it presents a heroine luckier and stronger than other women, particularly the poignant and resigned young bride, Pretty-Girl. Although the story line meanders, the final chapters, in which Sweetgrass nurses her family through a smallpox epidemic and a dreadful winter, are graphic and powerfully written. Especially convincing is the spark between Sweetgrass and Eagle-Sun, lovers who rarely speak or touch but make the most of a yearning glance. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)