My Name Is America: The Journal of Jesse Smoke, a Cherokee Boy

by Joseph Bruchac

Book Overview

Critically acclaimed author Joseph Bruchac's exciting JOURNAL OF JESSE SMOKE is now in paperback with a dynamic repackaging In 1838 in Tennessee, the Cherokee Nation is on the brink of being changed... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439121973
• ISBN13: 9780439121972
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 203 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

the journal of jesse smoke

The book was very good because it combines action and adventure and sadness the book was so good i read it two times and i always liked it so i read other books by the auther but i liked it best of all.

The Journal of Jesse Smoke

The Journal of Jesse SmokeIf you like historical fiction then I think you should read The Journal of Jesse Smoke because it was very exciting. It was exciting when the soldiers came to take all the Indians away. I thought that was interesting because then a white man tried to steal a house when a soldier beat him up. Then they went to the fort. Many died. They called it the Trail of Tears. The Journal of Jesse Smoke is about how the Cherokee and the Creek Indians have to live in forts. They think it is very unpleasant. Then a lot of Indians die. Most of them are very weak or and ill. The soldiers wanted the Indian's land so they came and kicked them out. Some of the Indians refused to go so then the soldiers killed them. I thought that was very mean and sad. 11-19-2002 Amozon.com

Jesse Smoke's Journal

If you like historical fiction, then I think you should read The Journal of Jesse Smoke because it was very exciting. It was exciting when the soldiers came to take all the Cherokee and Creeke Indians. I thought that was interesting because then a white man came trying to steal the house when a soilder beat up. Then, they went to a lot of forts. Many died. The Cherokee and Creeke Indians called that journey the Trail of Tears. THE END

The Trail of Tears

Jesse and his fellow Cherokee people have lived on the land for generations. Their ancestors grew old and died on the same Georgian land. However life changes suddendly in 1838 as the Treaty of New Enchota forces him and his mother and sister off of their land. At first like many of his people his family refuses to go. However in the middle of the night one night they were forced harshfully to move out. Jesse knows life will never be the same again as he sees the harships, sickness, death, hunger, fatigue, and sorrow in his Cherokee people. The "Trail of Tears" was truly a sad time in our nation's history.

A Cherokee boy keeps a journal on the Trail of Tears.

Sixteen-year-old Jesse Smoke's Cherokee ancestors have lived peacefully on the land for generations. Jesse's own family once owned a large, successful, plantation, until the family was driven off their land by white people, who then killed his father. Now, Jesse, his mother, and his two sisters live on a small, backwoods farm in Tennessee. But even there, they are not allowed to keep their land. All the Cherokees are ordered to leave their homes and move west to Indian Territory, part of present-day Oklahoma. Those that refuse, among them Jesse's family, are rounded up in the night, their homes burnt to the ground as they watch, and then taken to overcrowded stockades to await their forced journey west. Jesse tells the heartbreaking story of the tragic journey his people come to call the "Trail of Tears." I reccomend this book to all My Name is America fans.