Miranda's Last Stand

October 4, 1999
Returning to territory she explored in The Indian School, Whelan explores the tensions between settlers and Native Americans in this uneven tale, narrated by a girl who becomes involved with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. In 1876, when Miranda was two, her father fought with Custer in the Seventh Cavalry and was killed at the battle of Little Big Horn by Sitting Bull and his warriors. Eight years later, Miranda inherits a farmhouse from her grandparents, and her mother takes a fortuitous offer to join William Cody's show as a scenery painter in order to earn the money to restore the farm. Her mother has always told her that all Indians are bad, but when Miranda gets to know some of the Lakota Sioux who take part in the show (particularly three children close to her own age), she begins to doubt her mother's assertion. Displeased with Miranda's new friendships, her mother grows even angrier when she learns that Sitting Bull is soon to join the company. Whelan uses an accessible first-person narrative and polished, easy prose filled with behind-the-scenes details ("There was a flourish in all he did, like the curlicues people put into their writing," Miranda says of Buffalo Bill) to evoke the feel of Cody's Wild West show. An appearance by Annie Oakley and other details fill in the historical context, but the novel skimps on character development, and the plotting often seems contrived to deliver the feel-good message. Ages 8-12.

November 1, 1999
Gr 4-7-After her mother is hired by Buffalo Bill Cody to paint backdrops for his Wild West Show, Miranda encounters some Indian children whom she gradually realizes are the relatives of the men who killed her father in the Battle of Little Big Horn. As an account of one girl's gradual coming to terms with the loss of her father and understanding the plight of the Sioux, the novel has merit. Unfortunately, it completely ignores the painful and harsh ways in which they were exploited. Most of the Indian children are portrayed with good English skills, but their mother speaks stereotypical pidgin diction. Sitting Bull's interpreted speech has tremendous dignity and power, and seems strangely at odds with the rest of the narrative in mood. The characters lack those foibles and quirks that help them to spring to life and walk off the page, and the reverence readers are to feel for Sitting Bull distances them rather than pulls them into the tragedy of a great leader working a dog-and-pony show to entertain the very people he had fought for his own country. It is a tightrope to walk between telling a good story with immediacy and being completely respectful of people who once lived public lives. Unfortunately, Whelan fails to engage readers completely on either level.-Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 1999
Gr. 4^-7. When Miranda was two, her father rode with General Custer and was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Living in two cramped rooms at Fort Lincoln, where her mother works as a laundress, Miranda is thrilled to learn that she has inherited her grandparents' farm. Lacking money to move to the farm, Mama accepts a job with William "Buffalo Bill" Cody to paint backdrops and posters for his Wild West Show. But when Sitting Bull joins the show, Mama threatens to leave because of her deep hatred for him and the other Indians who fought against her husband. Miranda and Cody persuade her to stay, but Mama can't forgive Sitting Bull for her husband's death. Miranda's story, filled with characters from the American West, will fascinate middle readers, but adults may need to supply a bit of background as many children won't know enough history to see beyond the congenial, good-natured atmosphere that Whelan creates for the Wild West Show. ((Reviewed November 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2000
Miranda and her mother join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show to earn enough money to retire to their farm. They confront their own hatred when Sitting Bull, the Sioux chief who killed Miranda's father at Little Big Horn, joins the show. Whelan oversimplifies complex historical issues of Indian affairs and prejudices but makes a genuine attempt at evenhandedness.

(Copyright 2000 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)