Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl: A Novel

by John Demos

Overview

In this riveting historical fiction narrative, National Book Award Finalist John Demos shares the story of a young Puritan girl and her life-changing experience with the Mohawk people.

Inspired by Demos’s award-winning novel The Unredeemed Captive, Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl will captivate a young audience, providing a Native American perspective rather than the Western one typically taught in the classroom.
 
As the armed conflicts between the English colonies in North America and the French settlements raged in the 1700s, a young Puritan girl, Eunice Williams, is kidnapped by Mohawk people and taken to Canada. She is adopted into a new family, a new culture, and a new set of traditions that will define her life. As Eunice spends her days learning the Mohawk language and the roles of women and girls in the community, she gains a deeper understanding of her Mohawk family.  Although her father and brother try to persuade Eunice to return to Massachusetts, she ultimately chooses to remain with her Mohawk family and settlement.
 
Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl offers a compelling and rich lesson that is sure to enchant young readers and those who want to deepen their understanding of Native American history.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683351504
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

John Demos is an American author and historian. Until 2008, he was the Samuel Knight Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University. Demos lives in Tyringham, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"The documentation shows careful research by the author. This volume, aimed to be read by children, was inspired by the National Book Award finalist, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (Alfred A. Knopf 1994). If you need a historical fiction title based on an actual person, this volume could be your choice."

School Library Connection

"Demos’ presentation of the story from the perspective of this captive Puritan girl who became a Mohawk makes this an accessible narrative history for young readers."

International Literacy Association

"A powerful and haunting tale, beautifully told."

New Yorker staff writer and author of The Secret H Jill Lepore

"The narrative concentrates on Eunice’s early life, and Demos appends clarifications about the facts and fictions in the story as well as detailed source notes . . . the story is well researched and told, openly admits that Europeans stole indigenous lands, and offers a clear explanation of the alliances and motivations of the groups involved in this conflict."

Booklist

"The narrative concentrates on Eunice’s early life, and Demos appends clarifications about the facts and fictions in the story as well as detailed source notes . . . the story is well researched and told, openly admits that Europeans stole indigenous lands, and offers a clear explanation of the alliances and motivations of the groups involved in this conflict."

Booklist

01/01/2018
Gr 5–8—This "Indian captivity" novel is a fictionalized version of the experiences of a Puritan girl who was captured by Mohawk warriors at the age of seven. Eunice and her family settled in Deerfield, MA, just prior to the French and Indian War. Mohawks and settlers were killed, and among the dead were Eunice's mother and newborn sister. Eunice and her family are captured and separated from each other, and she is brought to a Mohawk village in Canada under French rule and influenced by Catholic missions. Her father, a prominent minister, escapes and negotiates the release of her two brothers, but Eunice's new family refuses to let her go. She ultimately decides to remain with the Mohawk family. The story follows her life among the Mohawk and describes various cultural beliefs and customs, the conflict between the Puritan and Catholic beliefs, and the prejudiced views both groups held about the Mohawk. What makes the story of Eunice, who later was given the name Gannenstenhai (She Brings in Corn), compelling is the portrayal of her transition from a white, colonialist culture to the Mohawk way of life. VERDICT Though far from a perfect representation of Mohawk history and culture, this novel nevertheless offers young readers a window into the conflicting cultural privileges and prejudices at play during this period of time. A historical novel best used in conjunction with supplemental texts and nonfiction about the relationship between colonists and Native peoples of the Americas.—Naomi Caldwell, Alabama State University, Montgomery

School Library Journal

2017-10-01
From Puritan to Mohawk.Eunice Williams, a young white Puritan girl, lives with her family in Deerfield, Massachusetts. During the winter of 1704, the town is attacked in the middle of the night by French soldiers and Mohawk warriors who kill the Williams' black servant (this atypical act is unexplained) and Eunice's newborn baby sister. The rest of the family is captured and taken from Deerfield. As they travel, Eunice is separated from them, eventually to be taken to live in the Mohawk village of Kahnawàke in Canada. There, Eunice learns the language and lives among them as one of their own. Though her father makes many requests for her return, Eunice refuses and lives the rest of her life with the Mohawks. The author notes that this is his fictionalized account of Eunice's story and her time with the Mohawks, so the Mohawk way of life is seen through the eyes of an outsider, apparent in such details as when the author refers to Mohawk traditional clothing as "costumes." In this light, Demos' statement that "All history is, in one way or another, the product of our imagination," comes across as justification to support a narrative of Mohawk culture sourced primarily from white records and histories, despite the participation of a Mohawk educator in the preparation of the book, as noted in the acknowledgements. Indeed, Demos' practice of sourcing his own book for adults in his notes adds another filter between readers and the Mohawks.A one-sided account. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews