Between Earth and Sky by Amanda Skenandore (@ARShenandoah) ~ A Review #MondayBlogs

by Susan Roberts

I enjoy reading historical fiction and love it even more when I learn about events that I didn't know about while I am reading. Between Earth and Sky does just that and more. The book is about the treatment of Indian children in the late 1800s when many of them were taken from their homes and families and moved to boarding schools. Their language and their traditions were stripped away from them as they were being 'civilized'. In the second time period in the novel - 1906 - we are shown the ramifications of the changes that the children went through and how it affected the rest of their lives.
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April 2018; Kensington; 978-1496713667
audio, ebook, print (336 pages)
Native American literature

As the novel begins, Alma is a young girl is waiting for the boarders at the new school that her father has just set up in Wisconsin. She is excited about the possibility of having so many new friends but finds herself treated like an outsider. Even as a child, she is shocked by what happens when the Indian children arrive at the school. Their clothes are burned and their hair is cut. They are no longer allowed to talk in their own language or do anything that would remind them of their past lives. Even their Indian names are changed to Christian names. The alternate timeline in 1903 is about Alma, now grown, who has moved to Philadelphia and reads in a newspaper article that one of her old friends from the school has been accused of murder. She convinces her lawyer husband that they need to help this young man because she felt that her friend had been unjustly accused of murder. What she learns when she travels back to Wisconsin is not only more about herself but also the results of the education that the Indian children had received at the boarding school.

Between Earth and Sky is a beautifully written novel that shows the amount of research that was done by the author. I knew very little about the Indian boarding schools during this time and I was appalled at the treatment that these children received. The characters are well written and the entire novel is fantastic. This is a debut novel for this author and I can't wait to read her future books.

Buy Between Earth and Sky at Amazon

About the Author:  

Amanda Skenandore is a historical fiction writer and registered nurse. In writing Between Earth and Sky, she has drawn on the experiences of a close relative, a member of the Ojibwe Tribe, who survived an Indian mission school in the 1950s. Between Earth and Sky is Amanda’s first novel. She lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Readers can visit her website at www.amandaskenandore.com.

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads,  or Twitter.

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