The Place at the Edge of the Earth

by Bebe Faas Rice

Book Overview

Jenny Muldoon has just moved to Fort Sayers, an army base built on the site of a school where, long ago, children from different Native American tribes were taken to be taught white culture. Jenny has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618159789
• ISBN13: 9780618159789
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

The Place at the Edge of the Earth--Highly recommended!

The Place at the Edge of the Earth by Bebe Faas Rice Scrupulously researched, this book is a fascinating dramatized account of a young Lakota boy who is forced, along with other Indian children, to attend a boarding school in the late 1800s for the purpose of assimilation into white society. The story follows Jonah Flying Cloud on his frightening trip to the school in Pennsylvania where his hair is cut (a sign of mourning with his people), his Indian clothes taken from him, and he's made to wear scratchy long underwear, thick woolen uniforms, and shoes that hurt his feet. His days are scheduled by bells and bugles, and he's marched to meals and classes where he's taught to speak the white man's language. He's even taken to church and told he'll burn in a fiery pit forever if he doesn't accept the white man's god. Jonah Flying Cloud dies, brokenhearted, at the school and is trapped between the place of his earthly life and "the land above the clouds, where the eagles fly." Jonah Flying Cloud's first-person narrative unfolds in alternating chapters with present-day Jenny Muldoon's story. Jenny moves with her mother and new stepfather to military quarters at Fort Sayers, which once housed the Indian school. When she finds out that her new home was once the school infirmary, the stage is set for her to meet the spirit of Jonah Flying Cloud who needs her help to be released from his dark half-world so that he can join his family and tribe members in the afterworld. Both stories keep the reader moving quickly through the pages. In an interesting subplot, Jenny helps a friend, the son of the commanding general at Fort Sayers, stand up to his father and get help for his alcoholic mother. At the end, Jenny is finally able to figure out how to help her Indian friend. The novel ends with a final, poignant scene between Jenny and Jonah Flying Cloud. This book a must for anyone interested in learning about the Indian schools. Its compelling story is sure to capture the interest and imagination of readers of all ages. Highly recommended!

A Book That Speaks To The Heart

This is a beautifully written and important book. It will give all readers, young andold, a better knowledge, understanding, appreciation and sympathy for the Indianchildren about whom the author writes with such deep feeling. Rice has managed tobalance the stories of the two main characters--the young Indian boy, Jonah FlyingCloud, who died over a hundred years ago and the modern day young girl, JennyMuldoon--with exceptional skill as the two young people "meet" in a time warp andgradually become sensitive of one another's feelings. This is a well-told, smoothly flowing tale, a real page turner. Rice has a knack forperfectly capturing the way young people talk, how they respond to one another and toadults. Once again, balance comes into play in the way the author weaves flashes ofhumor into the central, serious story line. Though I hated to have the book end, my spirit soared at the conclusion, whichdeserves to be read and reread several times. It's truly beautiful. The Author's Note, where Rice speaks of writing this book "from the heart" should not be missed. I wouldn't be surprised if The Place At The Edge Of The Earthgarners several awards, both for its writing craft and the importance of its subject.

Outstanding contribution

The Place at the Edge of the Earth by Bebe Faas Rice is a moving story of Lakota Indian children who were forced to attend one of the many government boarding schools "for their own good" to tame and civilize these "filthy savages" and make them imitation white people. But as the story unfolds, and we meet Jenny Muldoon in the present and Jonah Flying Cloud in 1879, Rice's narrative so clearly portrays the Lakota Indians as rich in their culture, sensitive to each other and strong in family ties. The mystery surrounding solving the murder and the covered-up lynching--and Jenny's gutsy determination that someone take responsibility--keep the book moving at a fast pace. The facts taken by Ms. Rice from government documents, interviews, tapes, and visits to Indian schools (described at the end of the book) are interwoven into the story so smoothly that children will absorb the history like osmosis. This gripping story experienced through Jonah Flying Cloud stayed with me, whereas facts from history books fade quickly. I came away from this book with a new understanding and compassion, and I believe young readers will also. This will be a much discussed book in classrooms, not just for its information on the Lakota Indians, but for how we currently treat--and mistreat--all people who are different than we are and, therefore, scare us. An excellent addition to school curriculum or simply for a rousing good mystery.

The Place at the Edge of the Earth by Bebe Faas Rice

The United States Government in the last two centuries took Indian children from their reservation homes and families -- often forcefully -- and sent them to boarding schools set up to acclimate them to life in the white man's world. This story blends a contemporary setting with flashbacks to this historical time as the ghost of an Indian boy who died there manifests itself to a girl who presently lives in quarters where the school once was. This chapter of history unfolds in sensitive and powerful writing as these two young people from different worlds together confront and resolve the trauma of their lives. This impeccably researched novel is for young adults, but tells a story that should be read by all ages.

A moving fantasy based on historical fact

This is truly a remarkable book: touching and shocking and thought-provoking and yes -- one where having a kleenex or two handy is a very good idea. Although it is a fantasy -- a ghost story, actually -- it is based on hard historical fact taken from documented materials including archival tapes made by older Indians recounting their own personal experiences in the government schools of the late 1800s such as the fictional one in this story. They told their own stories of how they suffered through the inhuman treatment of Indian children designed to rob them of their belief systems, cultural identity, self-respect, and for many -- sadly -- their own lives. Young people will easily relate to the two main characters, seemingly disparate: the ghost of a young Indian boy forced into attendance at the school so long ago, and a contemporary teenaged girl. Both are at odds with themselves and consequently those around them. They are loners, and like most loners, they are lonely.They are intensely human and likable and the reader is drawn to them from the start. Mrs. Rice writes exceedingly well, and this story moves so swiftly and compellingly that it is with regret that one reaches the end of the story and closes this moving book. This book should be available in all middle schools, and could be used as the basis for discussion in a history unit.