War Through the Generations April Readalong: I am Regina by Sally M. Keehn

For the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist at War Through the Generations, Serena and I will be hosting an April readalong of the young adult novel I am Regina by Sally M. Keehn, which is set during the French and Indian War.

“Alone yet not alone am I,” the young Regina sings to herself, as she and her mother always used to sing together.  But she sings now in a different time and a different place.  Attacked by the Indians, her wilderness home has been burned to the ground, her father and brother scalped, and she taken captive.  And her mother, who was away from home that fateful day?  Regina can only hope she survived.

Yet even as she hopes, the eleven-year-old girl begins a new life.  Befriended by kindly Nonschetto, she learns to catch the wily fish maschilamek, to dance the Indian dance, to speak the Indian tongue, to stand up to the vicious Tiger Claw, and finally, even to grieve as her new people are lost to smallpox and the gun of the white man.  Still, as the years go by, she does not forget the song, or the hope that someday she will once again meet the woman with the light brown hair and the sweet voice who was her mother.

In poetic prose, remarkable for its simplicity and beauty, Sally Keehn captures the drama of a young girl torn from her home and forced to learn an alien way of life.  I am Regina is an unforgettable first novel, written with understanding and compassion for the innocent of both sides caught in a war between conflicting cultures.

Winner of the 1992 Carolyn W. Field Award  (publisher’s summary)

Because the book is so short (my copy is only 240 pages), we’ll be dividing it into two discussions:

Friday, April 11: Chapters 1-13

Friday, April 25: Chapter 14-the end

The discussions will be held on War Through the Generations.  We hope you’ll join us!

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