Sweetgrass

Description

Can the whole tribe depend on her? Award-winning author Jan Hudson tells the enchanting story of a young Blackfoot girl caught up in the sweep of Western Canadian history.
 
Being the oldest unmarried girl in her Blackfoot tribe is misery for fifteen-year-old Sweetgrass, but her father feels she’s not ready for the hard work and responsibility that come with being an Indian wife. Then, during the cold prairie winter, a smallpox epidemic breaks out. With the men away at war, Sweetgrass is one of the few women left to fight for the survival of her tribe. This is her chance to prove her maturity, but is she strong enough to fight the cold, hunger, and disease?
 

“In a colorful, lyrical style evoking all the sense, Sweetgrass tells, with strength and tenderness, a dramatic story.”—Kirkus Reviews (pointer review)
 
An ALA Notable Book, Booklist Editors’ Choice, and winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award.Praise for Sweetgrass

An ALA Notable Book, Booklist Editors’ Choice, and winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award

“In a colorful, lyrical style evoking all the sense, Sweetgrass tells, with strength and tenderness, a dramatic story.”—Kirkus Reviews (pointer review)
 
“Powerfully written.”—Publishers Weekly

“Majestic historical fiction with concerns that echo problems in today’s society.”—School Library Journal

★”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)

★”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)

Jan Hudson, a Canadian author of historical fiction, wrote two novels, Sweetgrass and Dawn Rider, both of which exemplify her interest in “social anthropology–the little things that make up most people’s lives,” as she stated in a 1989 Publishers Weekly interview with Bella Stander. She conveyed these details by using the history of the Blackfoot Nation as her background. Hudson’s hope, more specifically, was to write about the lives of Canadian Indian women of the past who, in her opinion, had been ignored.US