Living with the Senecas

Title: Living with the Senecas
Author: Susan Bivin Aller
Publisher: Millbrook Press
Copyright: 2007 by Susan Bivin Aller
Pages: 64
Ages: 9-12
Genre: Non-fiction

Summary:
Mary Jemison lived with her family in Pennsylvania in the 1700’s. Until she was kidnapped by the Shawnees. Her family is murdered and she is taken captive with another boy. Mary is given to two Seneca women who recently lost their brother. They treat her well, but of course Mary misses her family. The Seneca women adopt her. They teach her their language which she learns quickly, and they teach her how to plant and harvest and be a Seneca woman. One day she is almost rescued but her Seneca sisters hide her and the rescue is foiled. Mary becomes depressed again, but comes out of it quickly. The next year her sisters choose a husband for her and they are married. She grows to love her husband very much and they have a daughter who lives only two days and then a son whom she names Thomas Jemison after her father. Unfortuately, when Mary leaves to go to her sister’s to show them the baby, her husband leaves for a journey, never to return. Mary moves in with her sisters. While there, the chief wanted to sell her back to the whites. Her sister’s hid her in a cave and she is soon remarried to a much older, but nice man. They have several children together. Their town is destroyed by white men and she and her family are forced to leave. She resolves to take care of her family on her own and finds a large corn field and two black men who escaped from slavery. They allow her to stay and protect her. The American Revolution ended in 1783 and the USA won it’s independence from Britain. Mary was offered an opportunity to return to white citizenship and after thinking about she decides to stay with her Seneca family. Mary gains some farm land and lives on it for most of the rest of her life. Mary loses three of her sons to drink, one of her sons murders his two others in a drunken rage. She is cheated out of her land many times and eventually she is interviewed and her story is written.

Who would I recommend this to?
I would recommend this to children who enjoys American History.

Potential problems:
It can be pretty graphic and violent.

My reaction:
I enjoyed this book. I read an adult book on Mary Jemison and really enjoyed it, but this was much better for children and still gave plenty of information.