Pearsall, Shelley.

CROOKED RIVER
New York : Random House, 2005.
IL 3-6, RL 6.2
ISBN  0375923896

(2 booktalks)

In 1812,  Ohio was the frontier where settlers were trying to establish homesteads.  The settlers were frightened of the Indians and determined to keep the “heathens” away.   When a trapper is murdered, the men of the village capture an Indian and chain him in the attic of Rebecca’s house.Rebecca and her older sister are expected to take care of Amik.At first, Rebecca is anxious but she soon starts to like him and exchanges small gifts with him.Rebecca comes up with a plan to free Amik before he is hung, but the ending is even more spectacular than she had planned.  (New Hampshire Great Stone Face 2007)

Booktalk #2

The year is 1812. A white trapper is murdered. And a young Chippewa Indian stands accused. Captured and shackled in leg irons and chains, Indian John awaits his trial in a settler's loft. In a world of crude frontier justice where evidence is often overlooked in favor of vengeance, he struggles to make sense of the white man's court. His young lawyer faces the wrath of a settlement hungry to see the Indian hang. And 13-year-old Rebecca Carver, terrified by the captive Indian right in her home, must decide for herself what—and who—is right. At stake is a life. Inspired by a true story, Crooked River takes a probing look at prejudice and early American justice.  (Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award 2008)