The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynne Reid Banks

This is a children's/young adult fantasy novel. An interesting premise: a young boy is given a plastic Indian (native American) figure, the kind of toy that comes in a package of many. There are many kinds of these sets: cowboys and Indians, soldiers, farm animals. Not very grateful for the toy, he stashes it away in a "cupboard" (medicine cabinet to Americans; Ms. Banks is a British author) and locks it with a very unusual old-fashioned key that his mother's grandmother had given to her long ago. Next morning, he awakens, hearing mysterious noises in the cupboard which he is keeping on his nightstand.

The Indian, though still very tiny, is alive! Alive, and not at all happy to be snatched from his Iroquois people of 1700s North America. Gradually, the boy, Omri, and the Indian, Little Bear, begin to understand and respect one another. As one might imagine, it is of utmost importance to keep Little Bear a secret from Omri's parents and brothers and his best friend Patrick, who gave him the plastic Indian. As Little Bear understandably becomes more and more insistent on having his needs met, Omri feels a deepening sense of responsibility that begins to weigh on him heavily. As he thinks of the future, he realizes that decisions must be made, and soon.

This book was made into a movie, and several sequels were written.

Under a Blackberry Moon: A Novel, by Serena B. Miller

From my church's library. Read and reviewed for LibraryThing in September, 2014

A Christian romance with excitement and danger. A young starving Chippewa widow with a baby seeks refuge in a lumber camp where she becomes an assistant to the cook and a friend of the owner and his wife. When danger of another kind threatens in town, she and her baby take off to reunite with her people, accompanied by Skypilot, an itinerant preacher. Their steamship explodes while navigating Lake Superior; the Indian Moon Song and her baby, Skypilot, and the young wife of an Army commander are the only survivors. Moon Song's native skills keep them alive; she can forage for food, devise shelter, swim, and find safe refuge. Knowing from past experience that white men are unreliable, she leaves Skypilot as she nears her village. Meanwhile, the young wife, Isabella, goes into a severe depression over the loss of her husband and baby in the shipwreck, and experiences a psychotic episode when she temporaily mistakes Moon Song's child for her own. There are other adventures before she reaches her homeland, and Skypilot has some decisions to make, as well. Then there is the attempt of the American government to take the native children far away from home to an "Indian school."

This was a surprisingly good book. I will look for more by this author.

Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell

Read and reviewed in September, 2012. Given to my son.

Fascinating book! I couldn't put it down! Rich in experiences and conversations with people who live and work in Louisiana bayou country: Cajuns, Houma Indians (Native Americans), and Vietnamese. He gave a lot of technical and scientific information, but presented so well that this non-techie, non-scientific person could easily understand, and even find interesting.

Very troubling situation regarding south Louisiana - the land is disappearing, and rapidly! This is mainly due to the excellent levee system that keeps the Mississippi River from flooding, but it is the flooding that builds delta land. Because it's not being re-built, the Gulf of Mexico is eroding it, helped by the pipelines and canals of the oil and gas industry. Very sad. The book was published in 2003, before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and others. The Third Delta Conveyance has not been built, or even started. It looks dire for Louisiana, and for the rest of the U. S.

Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver

Read and reviewed in January, 2010. Released later.

An excellent book - very well written! I really got involved with the characters, especially Codi, the central figure. I really got caught up in her life, what she was going to do, what she was learning about her past. I also learned things about Southwestern US culture that I didn't know.

Ramona, by Helen Hunt Jackson

Book image courtesy of Ebay Images

Read and reviewed in May, 2006. Released later

This is a surprisingly good book, in spite of its being categorized as a "Romance" by Avon Books. It is set in old California, the land of Mexicans and native American Indians. The story is an old theme: boy and girl meet, fall in love, but are prevented from marrying by family pressure.

I looked up the author on Google. Mrs. Jackson wrote this book in 1884. It is not a "romance" in the modern interpretation; it is historical fiction with a purpose. Mrs. Jackson was a fighter for the rights of the native American Indians, who were displaced from their land and treated as less than human by the United States government. She sought to redress those wrongs with the publication of a nonfiction work, A Century of Dishonor, which documented "broken treaties, dishonest deals, unfulfilled promises, and the federal government's corrupt mismanagement."

Failing to convince Congress and other leaders with the earlier work, she then wrote what she hoped would prove to be the Uncle Tom's Cabin for American Indians, the fictional novel called Ramona. It deals with the many wrongs done to the native peoples, especially the unlawful taking of their lands by the American government, as seen through the lives of two people, Ramona and Alessandro.

I really got caught up in the lives and turmoil of Ramona and Alessandro, even though the first few chapters moved rather slowly. This is a very moving book, with many different plot developments. I was sorry to see it end.

Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather

I read this book and reviewed it on Bookcrossing in June, 2003. It is no longer in my possession.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book;it was slow in places, but that's all right; it was relaxing.
Willa Cather painted beautiful word pictures of the people and places she wrote of, and I felt
as if I knew the priest and his friends personally.