Date: 23 March 2025
Location: Annie & Pete
It was another good meeting of the Happy Bookers with 15 Bookers in attendance. Nine of us actually read the book, and we all enjoyed it – a relatively unusual occurrence.
This is sort of a ‘coming of age’ story, mainly about Odie and his older brother, Albert. When they were orphaned and there were no other options, they were sent to the Lincoln Indian Training School, where they were the only non-Native Americans in the school.
The school was run by the superintendent, Mrs. Thelma Brickman, a despicable and cruel woman, known as the Black Witch. Another major player in the story was the sweet little girl, Emmy, daughter of one of the nice teachers at the school. However, when Emmy’s mother was killed in a tornado, the Black Witch basically took Emmy for her own and things got even worse. Treatment of the children at the school made for some difficult reading, and a couple of Bookers quit reading at this point.
When things got really bad, the two brothers, Moses (an Indian friend at the school) and Emmy made their escape from the school, paddling down river in a canoe. They hoped to make it to Odie’s aunt Julia living in St Louis. What followed was a series of adventures – mostly misadventures – as they journeyed on. They had all sorts of problems and met up with a plethora of interesting characters – scoundrels, thieves, nice folks, faith healers, sweethearts, etc.
Without going into details, there were some interesting twists near the end of the book. No spoilers here, but the book ended satisfactorily, and we were all glad we read it.
And then Annie fed us with some very tasty Shephard’s pie and other goodies.
— Bob