Instead of fighting against her captors and hating them and escaping at the first opportunity (although she certainly did try), she learned to love them and appreciate their culture.

It's based on the true story of Mary 'Molly' Jemison, who was captured and then adopted by Seneca Indians. The new cover makes it look all modern (and kinda creepy, actually), but the story is old.

Lois Lenski wrote and illustrated Indian Captive in 1941. What amazes me is when I find fair treatments of minorities from books written over fifty years ago, before the civil rights movement was in full swing. It no longer amazes me to see unbiased news reports about minorities or television shows featuring more ethnic characters. It's great that the social norm is no longer racism and that we're seeing more diversity in media, arts, and culture. Sure, I got made fun of for my small eyes and flat face, but so did the white girl with the big nose and, personally, I think she took it a lot harder than I did. I personally grew up without any particularly scarring incidents of racism. 'But there's still so far to go!' others might protest. In Journey Into Childhood, Lenski wrote that she was struck by the fact that there were 'plenty of books that tell how children live in Alaska, Holland, China, and Mexico, but no books at all telling about the many ways children live here in the United States'Ĭivil rights and equality have made a lot of headway against racism in the last century. What interested me most was the way children were living' (183). I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, 'On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. As a result, Lenski and her husband Arthur Covey traveled south each fall. Probably her most famous set is the following:īeginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her 'regional series.' In the early 1940s Lenski, who suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, was told by her doctor that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. Many of Lenski's books can be collated into 'series' - but since they don't have to be read in order, you may be better off just looking for more information here.

Indian Captive by Lois Lenski