About this item

Reviewed with Holly Littlefield's Children of the Indian Boarding Schools. Gr. 3-6. Historical photographs are the focus in this very moving Picture the American Past series. There's a sepia print on every page, and Littlefield fills in the history and the personal stories with informative text and captions that will encourage readers to look closely at the photos to see what they show and what they leave out. The stories are heartrending. Many Indian children were torn from their homes and sent away to be taught European culture in boarding school; they sit stiffly for group portraits in European clothes, their hair cut short, their names changed. Children sent west on orphan trains line up for inspection, hoping they look strong enough for work so that a stranger will offer them a home.