Rain Is Not My Indian Name

Rating:
Summary: Rain Is Not My Indian Name
Review: Before I began this book I came onto amazon.com to see what other people thought of this, along with the reviews and summaries I was expecting something absolutely GREAT!!! Well, it wasn't as good as I thought. The author had so many chances to make it good, it just never had potential. I will admit it was a 4-star book, until I got to the ending. I got so confused at the ending. I had absolutely no clue! Since I live in OK I loved how it mentioned city names and places I am very familiar. I would suggest this book to someone who might like it, but just don't expect a whole lot out of it. Happy Reading!

Rating:
Summary: Rain Is Not My Indian Name
Review: Before I began this book I came onto amazon.com to see what other people thought of this, along with the reviews and summaries I was expecting something absolutely GREAT!!! Well, it wasn't as good as I thought. The author had so many chances to make it good, it just never had potential. I will admit it was a 4-star book, until I got to the ending. I got so confused at the ending. I had absolutely no clue! Since I live in OK I loved how it mentioned city names and places I am very familiar. I would suggest this book to someone who might like it, but just don't expect a whole lot out of it. Happy Reading!

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Very highly recommended!
Review: Cassidy Rain Berghoff plans a kiss under the mistletoe to mark her new life, her birthday, and her new beginning. Galen has been her best friend through "lemonade stands, arcade games, spelling bees and science fairs." When he gives her a beautiful necklace for her birthday, something shifts. Trust Galen to show it first. But she believes there will be many days to share what they feel -- only to learn Galen dies overnight.

Rain's the only person in town to not attend the funeral. Somewhere frozen inside are her words, but she remains silent as grief overwhelms her. Rain isolates, avoiding visitors, friends, and soccer buddies. Eventually her family pushes her into the world again, attempting to send her off to an "Indian Camp".

When the camp becomes the focus of town controversy, Rain inadvertently finds herself at the heart of it. Instead of participating as a camper, she becomes the photographer for the local newspaper at the camp. That experience begins the process of healing and reconnecting to her world.

Author Cynthia Leitich Smith intersperses the narrative with journal entries, creating a fresh sense of immediacy in RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME. As the teen girl struggles through grief to rejoin the world, her journey of healing and growth touches the heart of all readers. Exploring the world of race, friendship, and connection, Rain becomes an example through her words and feelings -- never does the prose become preachy. Instead, she reveals her loss, her pain, her mistakes, and her growth, thereby allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. A remarkable and poignant achievement, RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME is a keeper! Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Like getting to know a whole community
Review: Cassidy Rain Berghoff's heritage includes German, Irish, Creek-Cherokee, and Ojibway. As she says, "Being a mixed-blood girl is no big deal..." but her Indian heritage is a big part of how she thinks of herself. It's also how her neighbors in her small midwestern town define her, dragging her unwillingly into the controversy surrounding Indian Camp -- a summertime activity club for Native kids. The controversy erupts just as Rain is beginning to venture out into the the world again after six months of self-imposed isolation following the death of her best friend, Galen Owen. Mrs. Owen, Galen's mother, is on a campaign to cut the funding for Indian camp. Rain, still mourning the loss of her friend, has to contend with small town gossip and small-minded thinking. The story of how she perseveres is the heart of the book. Her draws on her family, her artisitc ability, her humor and wit, and her kind-hearted nature. All this is brought to life with a rich and lively cast of well-developed characters. Reading this book is like getting to know a whole community.

Rating:
Summary: Rain Resonates with this Reader
Review: Cynthia Leitich Smith's Rain is Not My Indian Name is a refreshing, respectful examination of the issues that contemporary teens face. Smith gives such authentic voice to the heroine, Rain, that the character becomes real to this reader. The book courageously takes on real and complex issues that many teenagers face today, including death and single-parent households. Although there is enough action within it's pages to keep any teen interested, this is truly a book about individual characters. Smith captures the essence of her main character, Rain, by giving the reader a glimpse into her American Indian heritage. What is most impressive about Rain's character development is her proud heritage comes through, but does not solely define her. Smith has accomplished what few writers have. She develops her heroine's culture but not at the expense of her universal appeal to all teens, regardless of ethnicity. Rain illustrates the differences that make us special but also the similarities that unite us. I highly recommend this book for teens and parents alike for a thoughtful view of young middle-America. My only regret is that this type of book was not being written when I came of age.

Rating:
Summary: What the reader brings is important too
Review: I am a freelance quiz writer, and I picked up this book for one of my assignments. The cover blurb looked very interesting, and I began reading it with eager anticipation. Two hours later I put the book down, disappointed.

Rain's story has lots of potential, and takes place in an interesting family setting. Rain's mother has been dead for several years. Rain and her brother & his girlfriend live with their grandfather, who is vacationing in Las Vegas during the book. Their father is posted on Guam.

The book begins on the night her best friend Galen is killed, and then jumps ahead six months to his birthday (July 4) for the action. Rain's Aunt Georgia wants to run an Indian Camp, and Rain doesn't want to attend. Her brother's girlfriend asks her to photograph the event for a story Flash, an intern, is writing about the camp.

Aunt Georgia's concept of Indian Camp is very vague; even when Rain and Flash observe the camp in an attempt to write a feature story, Indian Camp never becomes anything more than nebulous. Georgia wants the campers to build a pasta bridge, write, design a webpage, and take a long fieldtrip to Minnesota (from Kansas) to watch an Indian rice harvest. Aunt Georgia feels these are important activities, but doesn't ever bother to explain why. Even Rain and Flash's conversations about the activities shed little or no light on the importance.

Galen's mother--a dislikeable character in all but one incident--is trying to stop funding of Indian Camp. For Rain, the Indian Camp conflict and her difficulty in dealing with Galen's death, combine to create problems between her and Galen's mother. Add to that rumours that are certainly intended to be scandalous (but which fall far short) and the situation becomes a stress point for Rain.

This book deals with more issues--multiculturalism, coping with death, teenage pregnancy, pregnancy out of wedlock, and family relationships--than can be handled in its skimpy 135 pages. The author had a great story idea, with the best of intentions, but lacked follow-through. Add to that the way the book jumps from topic to topic with little continuity, and the journal entries which, more often than not, add nothing to the plot, and you have a very unsatisfactory structure for a novel.

There are interesting elements in the book, though in my opinion the 14-year-old characters don't really act 14. If you can find this at your local library, go ahead and read it, if you wade through the author's lackluster writing style. Just don't waste money purchasing it. You'll be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Believable Rain
Review: I read this book almost a year ago, but it still lingers with me. I think the main reason is Cassidy Rain Berghoff, the fourteen-year-old title character. After losing her best friend, Galen, in a tragic way, Cassidy shuts out the world. Months pass before she grows to realize that she has to get in touch with the world again, even if it's through a job. I was really impressed by Cassidy's bravery and strength. The author did a great job making this character REAL. By the end of the book, I felt like I knew Cassidy. The author made me care about her - about what would happen to her.

The book doesn't make it easy for Cassidy to work things out. For example, while working as a photographer in an Indian camp run by her Aunt Georgia, Cassidy finds herself torn between getting involved in an emotional issue and staying professional and objective. Kids are faced with hard decisions all the time, so I found it very easy to relate to Cassidy and what she goes through.

I recommend RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME to anyone who loves a good story and good characters. This book has both!

Rating:
Summary: Spanning powwows to laptops
Review: Rain may not be her Indian name, but the easy reality of powwow references (where the birthday necklace comes from), a soon-to-be-born niece Aiyana (named after Rain's Cherokee great-great-grandmother) and a special Indian summer camp places at least one foot of this wonderful novel firmly in contemporary Indian country.

Not solely there, however. Another foot is just as firmly set in teenage country, from musings about the significance of a kiss to the whirring of laptops.

Then of course there is the mostly white, midwestern town setting of Hannesburg, Rain's home with her brother and grandfather. It is into this home that she retreats after her best friend tragically dies in an accident, and from which she eventually garners enough strength to reemerge and engage with with her community and the world.

It is refreshing to have issues acknowledged without being preachy or offering excuses. Alcohol, teenage pregnancy and ethnic identity are all part of the known fabric of life. These issues are not dwelt upon, but neither are they ignored. Curious to see how this all looks? Then explore a powerful integration of imagination and technology at the author's website created specifically to support and extend one's enjoyment of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Wordcraft Circle Winner, Oklahoma Book Award Finalist
Review: Written with an authentic Native literary structure, Smith's debut novel is perhaps most notable because ethnic identity is integrated rather than the sole focus of the book. Instead, her protagonist, Rain Berghoff, is a young mixed blood teen struggling to heal after the death of her best friend by reconnecting to her intertribal and German American small-town community. That challenge to heal is her primary conflict. The two subplots are about financing for a local summer camp for Indian youth, based on real-life camps of the same kind, using the same approach, and the adjustment to her older brother's new baby, nodding to the continuity of life and love.

Yet Rain's story is told with wit and warmth, deserving particular praise for its down-home Indian humor and realistically contemporary teen voice and vision. At its heart, this is a story about the importance of family and community, how they help us heal and become more of the best of who we are.

For this novel, Smith was named a 2001 Writer of the Year by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award. She'd also been a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award for her previous title, Jingle Dancer. This title is used in middle school classrooms and college courses with a multicultural focus. A break-through book from a young Native American author staying true to her culture and her readers. Don't miss this one