The Last Rainmaker

By Sherry Garland

Book Overview

Caroline Long discovers the family she never knew existed when she runs away and joins Shawnee Sam's Wild West Extravaganza. "The Wild West show milieu and the effect it has on the Indians who work in it ring true, and readers will empathize with the eternal struggle of a teenager trying to find her place in the world."-Booklist

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152006524
• ISBN13: 9780152006525
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.3"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Last Rainmaker

The Last Rainmaker, by Sherry Garland, epitomizes the struggles of a girl to be recognized in both the American Indian world and the white. Sherry Garland, however, touches on something more wordly here as well: respect of other cultures comes not by ignorance, but by acceptance of their gifts to nature and civilization. Though Caroline Long, the protagonist, is urged to ignore her mother's background, she discovers that all cultures must and can live together if they gain a respect for each other. Using the innocence of a child, Garland embodies all aspecs of a struggle of a girl to "fit in" wherever she goes, a childish act completed by so many youths today, even if it means drugs or violence. A good accompanying book is A Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter, for the boy in that book must also, in the end, choose the path he wants to take, not having the option of the best of both worlds. Maybe these authors want to state that harmony comes with acceptance.