Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner

Gr 6-10—The true story of the 1864 Navajo imprisonment and forced migration is told through the eyes of fictional 16-year-old Danny Blackgoat. Union soldiers capture him and his family along with numerous other Navajo families, destroying their homes and livestock before marching them through the desert at gunpoint. Oklahoma Choctaw storyteller Tingle never flinches from recounting the soldiers' cruelty, from withholding water and food to shooting an elderly man in the back. Danny is separated from his family and taken to a camp of Confederate prisoners, where he immediately makes one friend and one enemy from among the white prisoners. The villainous antagonist makes several attempts on the boy's life while the saintly friend nurtures him, teaches him English, and helps him escape. Throughout his episodic trials and tribulations, Danny's character reads more like a folk hero or legend than an individual, three-dimensional teen. The story is aimed at hi/lo readers, and the short, staccato sentences and unornamented prose make this a fast read-but perhaps too fast, as many threads are left dangling. While the history recounted here is important, this brief novel may raise more questions than it answers.—Sarah Stone, San Francisco Public Library