Salt
A Story of Friendship in a Time of War
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Anikwa and James, twelve years old in 1812, spend their days fishing, trapping, and exploring together in the forests of the Indiana Territory. To Anikwa and his family, members of the Miami tribe, this land has been home for centuries. As traders, James's family has ties to the Miami community as well as to the American soldiers in the fort.
Now tensions are rising—the British and American armies prepare to meet at Fort Wayne for a crucial battle, and Native Americans from surrounding tribes gather in Kekionga to protect their homeland. After trading stops and precious commodities, like salt, are withheld, the fort comes under siege, and war ravages the land. James and Anikwa, like everyone around them, must decide where their deepest loyalties lie. Can their families—and their friendship—survive?
In Salt, Printz Honor author Helen Frost offers a compelling look at a difficult time in history.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013
A Frances Foster Book
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using a narrative poetry format, Frost (Hidden) artfully crafts a fiction-based-on-fact story of events at Fort Wayne in the Indiana Territory in 1812. Pages alternate between the insightful voices of two 12-year-old friends: Anikwa, a member of the Miami nation, and James Gray, whose family runs the fort's trading post. The poems offer each boy's perspective on events, such as playing together in the woods or, later, the siege of the fort and subsequent burning of Miami villages. The layouts of the boys' narration visually highlight the contrast between their cultures: Anikwa's centered verses expand and contract in the organic shape of traditional Miami ribboncraft, while James's left-justified, double-line stanzas represent the U.S. flag's stripes, Frost explains. Lyrical poems about salt, a traded commodity necessary to both cultures, are interspersed: "Tears come from earth and sky,/ from words moving through us./ We taste them as they fall,/ leaving salt streaks on our faces." Author notes and a glossary of Miami words conclude a very personal account of history that offers much for discussion. Ages 10 14.
