Something to Hold

October 17, 2011
Set over the course of a school year in 1962, Noe’s quietly powerful debut novel is inspired by the author’s childhood memories of living on Indian reservations. Eleven-year-old Kitty is tired of being dragged around the country every time her father gets transferred. This time, it’s from Virginia to Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, where he works as a forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, combating the dangerous fires in the Cascades. Kitty reluctantly attends yet another new school, an outsider and in the minority as a white person; she eventually befriends brave Jewel, her feisty brother Raymond, and kind Pinky. Still, Kitty has trouble navigating the reservation’s intricate alliances, and she is shocked to find that her teachers and church acquaintances disrespect Indians, perceiving them as drunks and dropouts. As Kitty begins to see the difficult lives of her friends more clearly and grows aware of the prejudices and racial injustices around her, trouble inevitably follows. Noe’s coming-of-age tale offers many revelatory moments—such as when Kitty’s class studies Columbus Day—that will stick with readers. Ages 9–12.

October 15, 2011
Kitty Schlick is apprehensive about starting sixth grade on Oregon's Warm Springs Indian Reservation, home to Paiute, Warm Springs and Wasco people, where her father's job has taken the family in 1962. After a rocky start with the local kids--especially sullen Raymond and his sister, Jewel--Kitty's brothers moved on and made friends. Kitty's having a harder time. One of the school's few white students, she feels isolated until she's befriended by Pinky, a Wasco classmate whose mother, like Kitty's dad, staffs a fire lookout. As Kitty finds her footing, she's troubled by the preferential treatment teachers give white students and the casual racism of the white girls attending her church. She comes to appreciate the quiet strength of Raymond and Jewel, abused by their white stepfather but sheltered by their Warm Springs grandmother. Kitty, who's felt isolated, finds she has a place in this community. Noe, who bases the narrative on her childhood years in Warm Spring, resists didacticism. Kitty's discoveries and ethical dilemmas are age- and era-appropriate, the characters affectionately portrayed, rounded individuals. The ever-present threat of forest fire makes a grimly effective backdrop to the gentle foreground of this engaging tale, chronicling how tolerance of difference engenders mutual respect and opens the door to necessary change. (author's note, glossary) (Historical fiction. 9-12)

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November 1, 2011

Gr 4-6-It's the summer of 1962 and Kitty's father's job as the forest manager for the Bureau of Indian Affairs has landed them on the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon, where nearly everyone else is Native American. When she and her brothers attempt to find the local swimming hole, they are told, "You don't belong here." Kitty, 11, is both frightened and furious, and certain that she will never make friends at her new school. However, when her class is forced to sing the state song about free men bravely conquering the West for a Columbus Day assembly, the sixth grader begins to understand the resentment the Native American students hold for white people. Eventually, in the face of life-threatening wildfires, an Indian boy's abusive white stepfather, and an ultraconservative teacher, Kitty bravely stands up for a peer. Her narrative, interspersed with beautiful descriptions of the landscape, allows readers to make their own judgments about racism. Based on the author's own experiences, this novel fills a gap in the historical fiction genre. Great for classroom discussion as well as independent reading.-Mary-Brook J. Townsend, The McGillis School, Salt Lake City, UT

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Grades 4-7 Noe draws on her own childhood experiences living on Indian reservations for her first novel, a slice-of-life story set in 1962 Oregon. Eleven-year-old Kitty is one of the few white kids at Warm Springs Indian Reservation, having moved there for her father's government job. While her baseball-loving brothers fit in right away, Kitty finds the girls unapproachable until she starts school, where she's surprised to learn they thought the same about her. Her relationships with classmates Jewel and Raymond open Kitty's eyes to the casual discrimination Indians suffer from white teachers and town police. Noe's pacing is uneven: the majority of the novel is uneventful, showing moments in Kitty's growth over the year, but several dramatic events, including becoming trapped in a lookout tower during a forest fire and confronting Jewel's violent stepfather, rush by in the last forty pages. Other authors have handled tensions among Indians and whites with more depth, but Kitty's determination to speak out for her friends sends the right message.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2012
In 1962, Kitty's family moves to the Warm Springs Reservation where her father is working for the government fighting fires. As one of only a few white girls on the reservation, Kitty feels like an outsider. Her experiences making friends and finding a home in a Native community are well evoked by Noe, who based the story on her own childhood experiences. Glos.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)