Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools (Scholastic Focus) by Dan SaSuWeh Jones

Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools (Scholastic Focus) Reviews

• 
  Corinne

  The non-fiction middle grade book, Stealing Little Moon: The Legacy of the American Indian Boarding Schools by Dan SaSuWeh Jones follows the family of the author. In the foreword, we learn that this story will cover four generations of his family and their connection to the Indian boarding school Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. I received this as a NetGalley ARC and the novel will be published September 2nd. This novel informs us about the heartbreaking and true experiences of what happened to many indigenous families in the United States and Canada through SaSuWeh's family's firsthand account.
  
  This book was well written and took a lot of different history and events and put it in a middle grade genre. It was done really well. I honestly think that is a great book for everyone. I had a little understanding of the Indian Boarding Schools, but this gave me a better understanding of what was happening. While being informative, it was also an understanding and nuanced look at what the Chilocco school was for the variety of students that walked through those doors for almost 100 years. The information, pictures, and personal connection in this book would make it a great choice for a literature circle, a class novel reading, or for any non-fiction/history reader.
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  Kelly Long

  Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
  This part of history is not well known but so important. I don't remember learning about this during my years at school.
  This book provides an eye-opening look at what the Native American families went through when their young children were taken from the families and sent to boarding schools that were poorly run. It's heartbreaking to read about those young kids being taken and how the government tried to make them like white man. Everyone should read this book, not just middle grade readers.
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  Ms. Yingling

  E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
  
  A LOT of good information, but a bit densely packed for middle grade readers. I'd love to see a version that was a bit shorter. I would definitely buy this for a high school library.
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  Laura Byrd

  Thank you NetGalley and Scholastic for an advanced copy of this book to read.
  
  Stealing Little Moon is about the history of the American Indian Boarding School system. These boarding schools were set up across America as a way to strip Native Americans of their cultural heritage, to Christianize them, and to turn them into a people that more resembled their white counterparts in the US and Canada. These schools and systems were harsh and cruel. That really is an understatement.
  
  I'm happy to see more books coming out that reveal the horrors of this time in American History. If there is one thing that is consistent throughout the life of this country, it's the universal mistreatment and dehumanization of Native Americans. As a people, it's impossibly for us to begin to repair the damage we have caused unless we first acknowledge the depth of the damage that was caused and its affects that reach into modern life.
  
  The first part of this book was good, though I was expecting more of a memoir or stories of individuals in one family tree that carried throughout the book - more like one cohesive story. That's not what this book is. It tells multiple stories of boys and girls and various boarding schools throughout their use. I did find that some of the concepts and stories began repeating themselves as the book went on. For that reason, and because I was coming into this reading with some knowledge of this history already, I didn't finish the book. I have such a big stack of books I need to get through, I just didn't see value in finishing it for me. However, for someone who doesn't know anything about the American Indian Boarding Schools, this would make a great introduction.
  
  This is recommended by the publisher for middle grade. Due to some content, I would recommend for 10+ and older for more sensitive readers.
• 
  marissa

  Stealing Little Moon by Dan SaSuWeh Jones shares often the untold stories of the American Indian boarding schools. He dives into, specifically, the history of Chilocco and Ponca Nation. Through familial accounts and research, he shares the tragedies that Indigenous people faced upon the opening of these schools and how American policies have perpetuated this systemic oppression. I certainly learned a lot while reading this book. That being said, the format threw me off. Upon starting the book, I was interested in reading about the author's family. However, as the book continued, he began to shy away from personal accounts and jumped from topic to topic nonsensically. While this might be revised before the book is published, it made reading the information quite confusing. Nonetheless, I think this is a great read for any upper-middle school/high school student (and adults, of course).
  
  Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic Focus for the E-ARC! All opinions are my own.
• 
  H. Woodward

  I give this a 4 only because it would be hard to sit down and read cover to cover. However, it is ideal for classroom use, particularly in high school US history and APUSH. It’s a story that needs telling and is told truthfully and with an eye towards justice throughout. I love how the lense of history fluctuates here. Sometimes we get highly personalized, individual perspectives and others pan back and look to the full landscape of Native American struggle for agency. I thoroughly enjoyed this author’s previous collection of spooky stories. I makes me enormously pleased that he has taken on such important subject matter here. All social studies teachers need to read this book, and the land we now call the US would be much better for it. Thank Mr. SaSuWeh Jones! Mahalo!
• 
  Alma

  The inter-generational trauma inflicted on Native Americans from these schools has been part of Indigenous families for more than 100 years, but little has been said about the shameful role the United States played in their brokenness until the recent discovery of thousands of unmarked graves at former schools in Canada. This is a powerful book, interspersed with many asides which give historical context to the narratives. I picked it up at the recent ALA conference in June, and put it on my TBR pile. I finally had a chance to read it. Read more about it on my blog:
  https://shouldireaditornot.wordpress....
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  Brandi Fundingsland

  Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC. While I found the content interesting, I had issues with the format. I would read a paragraph, and it would abruptly stop and jump to a different idea. Then, the original idea would pop back up again. The flow of the ebook made it hard to follow in some places. Therefore, while the content is enjoyable, I would not recommend the ebook (hopefully, the issues will be fixed when it is published).
• 
  Bibliohiker

  Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I thought this was a very in-depth book. It’s crazy how one group of people thought they had to completely change and get rid of another’s way of life, culture,etc…because they thought theirs was better; when it wasn’t.