Nellie The Brave

Nellie was glad they were around the big curve of the lane so she couldn’t see the men go into the house. Would they take her four-poster bed? Would they take Edoda’s special chair? Hatred gripped her heart, and it was not a good feeling. She clamped her jaw, her teeth grinding together. What had happened to her in the last hour? She was a Christian girl who valued peace in her heart and pleasant thoughts for others. But she didn’t feel like that girl anymore. She tried to smile to change her thoughts, but her mouth felt fixed in a frown.

Book: Nellie the Brave: The Cherokee Trail of Tears (Sisters in Time Book 10) by Veda Boyd Jones, Barbour Publishers, 2006

Genre: Historical Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 9-15

Subjects: Loss of Loved Ones, Fear, Trail Of Tears, Prejudice

Summary: Why is this happening to them? One morning a runner comes announcing that the white men are on their way to kick all the Cherokee out of their homes, forcing them to move to a new state. Nellie and her family frantically pack all they can before the soldiers come. But there’s one very important thing they can’t pack: Nellie’s brother. He went to deliver some medicine to an older Cherokee and hasn’t returned yet. No one knows where he is. Nellie and her family are frantic with worry about Lewis in the midst of all this upheaval. These white men carry guns and are dangerous. The journey they are to undertake is over 1,000 miles long. How will they survive the dangers of the trail and the sickness that comes as they journey? When Nellie realizes her mother is pregnant and her best friend is ill, she has even greater cause for concern. Is the forced move really just a chance to kill all of the Cherokee or can they really make this trip?

Notes: Nellie The Brave is the tenth in the Sisters-In-Time series. This series features young girls living at various key points in American history, particularly around the wars. It always places the girls right at the edge of the teen years, coming of age.  The concept of the series it to not only show a glimpse of history, but to help young girls feel that the people back then weren’t that different than the people today.

Nellie The Brave is set in 1838 during the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of the Cherokee from their homes in Tennessee to “Indian Territory” in the west in what is now Oklahoma. It shows a young girl torn between living as much like a Cherokee as she can, yet wanting some of the white man’s advantages at the beginning and then wanting to view herself entirely as Cherokee after the removal. Throughout the story she wrestles a lot with fear, especially with her mom’s pregnancy, best friend’s illness and the escape of her other friend. Old Rivers, a wise man who is close to her family, tells her that it is extremely important to forgive and not let bitter feelings take root in her heart. He tells her to “pray to the one true God for the strength to silence the bad thoughts” and forgive those who have harmed her.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Ephesians 4:32 –Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Matthew 5:44 - But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you