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Title: Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, Massachusetts, 1653 (The Royal Diaries) by Patricia Clark Smith ISBN: 0-439-12910-9 Publisher: Scholastic Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A good edition to the Royal Diaries series
Comment: After a tremendous wait, I have finally been able to read, Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets and it didn't disappoint me at all. Like the title suggests, this book centers around 14-year-old Weetamoo, oldest child and successor of sachem Corbitant. The book describes one year in her life and was depicted through many Native American legends. I especially enjoyed the story of Squant, a beautiful squared eyed young women Weetamoo prays to for patience and who appears to Weetamoo in a spiritual ritual fast. The book also describes Weetamoo's interactions and feelings toward the "Coat-Men", the English of the Plymouth Colony. As the story passes, Weetamoo has many life changing experiences such as her ritual fast in which she see clues to her future, and she finds her love whom she believes will be her husband one day.
I really did enjoy this book, though it was not one of my favorites of the Royal Diaries. It is nice to know that there are more Native American women other than Pocohantas or Scajawea who stood up for their beliefs. Though in the end Weetamoo and her people did not triumph, their culture is very much alive in the US today, and I really recommend people to read this book to develop an understanding of them.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful,as good as anyone could expect after the long wait
Comment: Finally! After all of the Royal Diaries fans across the nation anxiously waited for the publication of Weetamoo for over two years it's finally here!
This diary covers the teenage years of Weetamoo, the oldest daughter of the sachem of the Pocasset Native Americans, Corbitant, but basically it focuses on the turbulent changes that Weetamoo goes through that will affect her deply when she inherits the role of sachem over the Pocassets. This diary was special in this appraised series. As the author frequently composes, Weetamoo did not write. The Pocassets put their stories down in wampum belts or birchbark pictures. But mostly they handed down their stories orally. In this case, we dive into Weetamoo's thoughts because her imposing father quietly asks his daughter to find some peace and quiet time during her days and reflect with herself, as she is rowdy and wild, and she must learn to contain herself in order to become a true Pocasset sachem. Through almost 150 pages of Weetamoo's thoughts and little birchbark pictures that she composes to keep a memory of her thoughts (and struggles to hide them) we see Weetamoo's daily life. This is what is also special about this diary. Most of the other diaries describe lessons and balls and diplomacy. However, this diary showed the spirit of an average kid. Weetamoo played with her friends, she talked about boys and other things a teenage girl would talk about with her best friend Cedar, who is also destined to become a sachem, and she of course has to do household chores with her mother and her younger sister, Wootenasuke. There are a few funny moments throughout the diary, and Weetamoo's style and voice is much like that of kids today. Memorable moments scatter this book, from the delightful ones such as Weetamoo following her father and his entourage to Plymouth through the poison ivy and sumac and her meeting with her future second husband, Wamsutta, in the woods to the eerie, prophetic, and practically haunting dreams that Weetamoo and Cedar have when they undergo their vision quests. Dreams of villages burning, rivers soaked in native blood and bodies, visions of Weetamoo as an older woman without her husband (prophesizing his death), and Cedar and Weetamoo's eventual departure from their friendship.
All in all, this book was a wonderful read, a great contribution to the series, and just as good as I had hoped for after my anxious 2 year wait. To the side, a reason I liked it all the more is because normally we read about Native Americans who helped the English, like Pocahontas and Sacajawea (just as the author puts in her note). But now we have the chance to enter the world of not only a Native American that many have not heard of and is fresh to our minds, but also one that stood up to the English.
The epilogue, historical note, and appendices are packed with information ranging from Weetamoo's tragic death along with her other childhood friends to Pocasset customs to the hostility between Plymouth colonists and their friends, the natives of Metacom (King Philip). The only thing I was disappointed with was there was no explanation as of why this book took so long to come out. Other than that, I loved this book and it is one of my favorites, not only because it was a very fun read and packed with information but also because it is one of the only books in the series that kids can truly connect with and relate to. I highly recommend.
Also, a little overview of upcoming Royal Diaries, all found from my own investigation:
Lady of Palenque by Anna Kirwan, due out in March, 2004
Kazunomiya by Kathryn Lasky, due out in May, 2004
Maria Theresa by ----, due out in August, 2004
Catherine the Great by Kristiana Gregory, due out in Fall, 2004
Visit my Royal Diaries site (http://royaldiaries.freeservers.com)
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent addition to the Royal Diaries series.
Comment: Fourteen-year-old Weetamoo is the oldest daughter of Corbitant, sachem to the Pocasset band of the Wampanoag Nation. Even though she is a girl, Weetamoo is the one who will inherit her father's position someday. But it's 1653, and her tribe's home in what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island is changing forever. The settlements of the English "Coat-men" are expanding onto the Pocassets' territory, and Weetamoo wonders what will be left once she becomes her people's leader. Over nearly a year, Weetamoo describes her life as the seasons change and she undergoes a ritual fast and vision quest. There has been a long wait for this book in the Royal Diaries series to be released, but I am glad to say it's as good as I expected. I highly recommend Weetamoo's story to all Royal Diaries fans.
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Title: Kristina: The Girl King, Sweden, 1638 (Royal Diaries) by Carolyn Meyer ISBN: 0439249767 Publisher: Scholastic Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Elisabeth: The Princess Bride, Austria-Hungary, 1853 (The Royal Diaries) by Barry Denenberg ISBN: 0439266440 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Lady Of Palenque : Flower of Bacal, Mesoamerica, A.D. 749 (Royal Diaries) by Anna Kirwan ISBN: 0439409713 Publisher: Scholastic Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Mary, Queen of Scots: Queen Without a Country, France, 1553 (The Royal Diaries) by Kathryn Lasky ISBN: 0439194040 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Lady of Ch'iao Kuo: Warrior of the South, Southern China, A.D. 531 (The Royal Diaries) by Laurence Yep ISBN: 0439164834 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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