Riddle pulls no punches in this difficult, yet engrossing, novel...
References to the consequences of intentional cultural suppression and
demeaning discipline in Native American boarding schools appear in the works
of numerous Indian authors, including Louise Erdrich and Paula Gunn Allen.
Now Riddle brings to life St. Nicholas School: "a composite of Native
boarding school" found in Canada and the U.S. during the 1950s, and presents
a clear-eyed survivor of the system, Ruby Loonfoot, a 13-year-old Ojibwe
girl. Through Ruby's eyes, Riddle illuminates a harsh world in which young
girls are removed from their Native homes, undernourished, humiliated, and
in several instances sexually molested, all part of the painful process of
sacrificing their Indian identity for a mainstream education. Although
Ruby's mother is a boarding school graduate, a Catholic, and desperate to
leave the reservation, her grandmother is a respected elder who strives
until her death to pass on to Ruby not just tribal traditions, but a sense
of pride. Riddle pulls no punches in this difficult, yet engrossing, novel
about a coming-of-age made torturous by institutionalized racism." -
Booklist (Deborah Donovan)
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