Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears

by Cornelia Cornelissen

Overview

It all begins when Soft Rain's teacher reads a letter stating that as of May 23, 1838, all Cherokee people are to leave their land and move to what many Cherokees called "the land of darkness". . .the west. Soft Rain is confident that her family will not have to move, because they have just planted corn for the next harvest but soon thereafter, soldiers arrive to take nine-year-old, Soft Rain, and her mother to walk the Trail of Tears, leaving the rest of her family behind. 
 
Because Soft Rain knows some of the white man's language, she soon learns that they must travel across rivers, valleys, and mountains. On the journey, she is forced to eat the white man's food and sees many of her people die. Her courage and hope are restored when she is reunited with her father, a leader on the Trail, chosen to bring her people safely to their new land.
 
Praise for Soft Rain: 
 
"An eye-opening introduction to this painful period of American history."—Publisher's Weekly 
 
"The characters themselves transform a sorrowful story of adversity into a tale of human resilience."—Kirkus Reviews 
 
"This gentle child's-eye view will move readers enormously."—Jane Yolen 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780440412427
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	11/09/1999
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	73,831
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.69(h) x 0.32(d)
Lexile:	650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Cornelia Cornelissen is the author of two books for children, Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears and Music in the Wood.

Editorial Reviews

In what PW called "an eye-opening introduction to a painful period of American history," a Cherokee girl recounts the hardships of 1838 leading up to and including the journey along the Trail of Tears. Ages 8-12. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 3-5-In the spring of 1838, nine-year-old Soft Rain learns that there will be no more school for the Cherokee children in her North Carolina community. The Tsalagi (as the tribal members refer to themselves) have signed a treaty with the white men and will be moving to new lands in the West. A short time later, soldiers abruptly force Soft Rain and her mother from their home, abandoning the girl's blind grandmother, her dog, and her father and brother out working in the fields. They follow the Trail of Tears, the path taken by 18,000 Cherokee traveling from stockaded holding areas across rivers, valleys, and mountains. Hungry, exhausted, and often ill from the white man's disease, some 4000 people died during the migration. But Soft Rain's story ends more happily; she and her mother miraculously meet up with her father, brother, and an uncle. The author makes clear the hardships these Native Americans endured and the injustice of their exile, but her protagonist remains remarkably positive. Because she has been relatively unaffected, readers may be, too. At one point the grandmother tells a story; at that moment, the book becomes more than just the record of a trip but a glimpse of a disappearing culture. However, there aren't enough of these stories to bring readers closer to this girl and her world. Still, this novel is a readable version of a shameful episode in U.S. history and may find use as a supplement to social studies units.-Kathleen Isaacs, Edmund Burke School, Washington, DC

School Library Journal

Cornelissen (Music in the Wood, 1995, etc.) relates a tragic chapter of American history, the removal of the Tsalagi, or Cherokee, from their land in North Carolina and their march westward to Oklahoma, as seen by a nine-year-old Tsalagi girl. Soft Rain is informed at school one day of the removal of her people; in no time, soldiers barge into her home and break apart her family. She and her mother are taken to a stench-filled stockade, where the white man's sickness quickly kills her cousin and best friend, Green Fern. Soft Rain is a strong and sympathetic character, as well as a good storyteller, evoking the harsh winters, hunger, and rage that are part of her journey, as are her experiences with the kindness of strangers. Among the rousing details in the narration are Soft Rain's whispers to a soldier through the fence to get information, her worries over the uktena, or horned snake, when crossing the river, and her silent huddling with her brother under a blanket in the pouring rain. Such particulars enlighten readers, even as the characters themselves transform a sorrowful story of adversity into a tale of human resilience. (bibliography) (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews