Shelly's Book Blog

I'm still working my way through the Newbery Medal winners, and this time I read Caddie Woodlawn, by Carol Ryrie Brink. This was written in 1935, but for the most part I did not find the languge to be too dated. The one exception I noticed was that the characters (even the sympathetic ones) refer to the Native Americans as "savages." Brink based Caddie Woodlawn on the stories her grandmother told her about her childhood as a pioneer living in Wisconsin during the mid-19th century. 11-year-old Caddie is one of seven children in her family. She is a tomboy and loves to go adventuring with her two brothers, Tom (who is older) and Warren (who is younger). Her father accepts her for who she is and encourages her mother to let her "run wild" so that she will grow up to be healthy and confident. The society in which Caddie lives nevertheless expects girls and women to be ladylike, and in the end it seems as though Caddie will eventually have to conform. In the meantime, however, she has great fun, and I enjoyed reading about all of her adventures and learning more about pioneer life. This is a good one to recommend to girls in middle school.