Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Milton Hershey School, Valley Forge Military Academy and College, George School, the Hill School, Mercersburg Academy, Church Farm School, Westtown School, Wyoming Seminary, Girard College, the Kiski School, the Perkiomen School, John Beck's Boys Academy. Excerpt:CFS, The School at Church Farm History CFS, The School at Church Farm was founded as the "Church Farm School" in 1918 by the Rev. Dr. Charles W. Shreiner. Shreiner, an Episcopal priest, established the school in Glen Loch, Pennsylvania , on U.S. Route 30 between Frazer and Exton, as a boarding school for boys from broken homes, primarily those without fathers. The sons of clergy, members of the armed services, and police officers were a second focus of the school in its early days. The Founder, Rev. Shreiner, because of his strict belief in the importance of discipline and a strong work ethic, was known to the boys as the "Colonel." The school integrated in 1963 and is today recognized as one of the most diverse college-preparatory boarding schools in the country. After the Colonel's death in 1964, the school was placed under the direction of his son, Dr. Charles Shreiner, Jr., a World War II veteran, who served until retirement in 1987. The school's third headmaster, Charles "Terry" Shreiner, III, the founder's grandson, led the school from 1987 until 2008, leaving in June for a year-long sabbatical prior to a planned 2009 retirement. The School is currently under the leadership of an interim headmaster, Thomas Rodd, Jr., who will be replaced by Rev. Ned Sherrill in July 2009 as the new headmaster. Presently, the School's academic program is designed for boys in grades 7-12. (A "junior school" of grades 5-6 was phased out in the 1960s.) The school offers a well-rounded, rigorous, college preparatory education, includ... ... Read more

Product Description
Acclaimed historical novelist Ann Rinaldi makes her "Dear America" debut with the diary of a Sioux girl who is sent to a government-run boarding school to learn the white man's customs and language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (70)

Deceived
"This book is aimed towards young adult readers, but is suitable for adult readers as well who are interested in Carlisle Indian School and Native American studies. This is a story about a young Sioux girl named Nannie Little Rose who describes her life at Carlisle Indian school in 1880 through a series of diary entries. Through her eyes we get a glimpse into what life was like for Indian children sent to Carlisle.

Unfortunately, though this book has some historical accuracies, it is NOT a true story. Nannie Little Rose did not write this diary, in fact, she never existed. The author, Ann Rinaldi, visited Carlisle and its graveyard and, fascinated by the names on the headstones, decided to write a story about Carlisle and its students using the names on the headstones to create the characters in a fictional account. She did do research and used events that occurred at Carlisle to weave her story, however the events did not take place in the time period covered in her book and any feelings or events specific to the characters are not real - just their names. I found this to be very disappointing, especially after reading the entire book and THEN finding the disclaimer, "While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Nannie Little Rose is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction" on the VERY LAST page of the book. I felt like I was purposely deceived, as everything in the book is made to appear that it is a true accounting and diary, complete with an epilogue detailing what happened to Nannie Little Rose after she left Carlisle - down to the number of children she had and the year of her death.

In addition, because this is a FICTIONAL accounting by someone who is not Indian, one has to question the feelings presented by the characters she has invented. As someone who has some knowledge of what Carlisle was like for its students and how it made them feel and how being there affected their entire lives (my father-in-law was a Carlisle student and spoke about what life was like for him there), I feel that only someone who is Indian, or who has spoken to an Indian who experienced Carlisle, could truly represent their thoughts and feelings about what it was like for them. Rinaldi should have attempted to find someone who actually attended Carlisle to get their personal story to base her characters' thoughts and feelings on. Otherwise, it is just another white person's take on what it is like to be Indian.

In this book, Carlisle is presented very favorably. Some of the injustices are described, but in a somewhat whitewash fashion. I did, however, find Rinaldi's description of an Indian child's first day at Carlisle to be pretty realistic and moving. The 'great experiment' that Capt. Pratt practiced on these people was, in all reality, an attempt at ethnic cleansing. These Indian children were forced to attend the Indian schools. They were stripped of their identities (separated from their families and then separated by their sex, clothes taken and burned, forcibly bathed and de-liced, their hair cut - for an Indian a very traumatic event - names taken and given new Anglo/Christian names) and beaten and punished if they ever spoke their language or did anything remotely 'Indian' again. How is this not like the holocaust for the Jews, save being placed in a gas chamber?

Just like Capt. Pratt with his idea for Indian schools like Carlisle, Ann Rinaldi seems to have had good intentions when writing her book. Her writing and story is good and informative, but unfortunately, by deceiving the reader into thinking it is a true story written by a real person - a Native American, who really attended Carlisle - everything she writes is then suspect and colored by a white person whose experience and understanding can never truly compare. I would recommend reading this book to get a basic idea of Carlisle, but to read further in order to obtain a true accounting."

It may not be historically accurate but,
It's still a good book. This book is about a Native American girl named Little Rose. She is taken to an Indian school, where she has to choose a new name, Nannie. This book is very inspirational, and hopeful.

My Heart is on the ground
My nine year old daughter loved this book. It is very well written and a pleasure to read.

My Heart Is On The Ground
My Heart is on the Ground / 0-590-14922-9

This installation in the Dear America series details the life of a Sioux girl, brought to live at a school for American Indian children to learn American English and the customs of the Caucasian Americans. This book has generated a great deal of controversy and concern, but I feel that (as best I can fathom) Rinaldi has done the best she can with a difficult period of history.

The diary format is employed here, as elsewhere, with dual 'languages' - plain type denotes the narrator's attempts at English, italic type denotes her native language. As in other Dear America diaries, the diary device is meant as a teaching device and the narrator's English improves throughout the story. This dual writing device is useful because it shows the narrator's sympathetic struggles with a new language, without muting her inner thoughts or making her seem 'stupid' for her poor communication.

The school is shown in a very mixed light and, I feel, the terrible plight of the American Indians is shown here very starkly. The narrator explains how they have fewer animals each year to hunt, because the practices of the Caucasian Americans are causing the extinction of the animals. She tells with sadness about the slaughter and starvation of her people, and the other American Indian tribes. Although the school staff believes they are doing her a favor in turning her from her 'barbaric' past, she bravely insists that her past is not barbaric, that she is a proud descendant of a unique and beautiful culture. She accepts the training taught to her at the school for HER own purposes only - she wants to use what she learns to go back to her people and help them, in whatever way she can. In this way, I feel that the narrator character is one of the strongest and bravest characters in the Dear America series - willing to take on the world to save her people.

There are some frightening parts here that may not be acceptable for small children. The narrator's closest friend goes into a trance and either dies or (as our narrator is convinced) is buried alive by the foolish medical staff. Other children die of various illnesses, and the medical staff at the school is (probably accurately) shown as not very competent. The teachers are, in general, cruel and vicious and refuse to treat the different tribes as different - they treat all the children as one conglomerate whole of "Indians", which chafes the students and causes much private dissention.

I cannot say with accuracy how much of this book is correct in terms of tribal customs of Hopi, Sioux, etc. I can say that this book seemed, to me, to be very sympathetic and in the spirit of the best of the Dear America books. I would recommend this to any child, and any inaccuracies I would use as a stepping stone to learn more about this subject and to explain how poorly the American Indians were treated.

~ Ana Mardoll

HORRIBLE
I cannot believe this bastardization of a historical event is still on the market. This is horribly inaccurate, using the actual names of Native American children that died, probably because of abuse,malnutrition,ect while they stayed at this horrible boarding school. The author obviously knows NOTHING about this particular tribe's customs and generalizes everything. I would not want any child to read this novel and get the wrong idea about what happened in the past. This does not deserve to be titled a historical fiction, rather it is a book written by an ignorant woman who has NO respect for the deceased, or Native Americans. What was scholastic thinking? ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Valley Forge Military Academy & College (usually shortened as VFMAC or Valley Forge historically referred as "Little West Point"), self-styled as The Finest Institution of its Kind in the World, is an American all male boarding school (grades 7-12) and coeducational (as of Fall 2006) junior college in the military school tradition. Valley Forge Military College is officially designated as the Military College of Pennsylvania, and is one of five military junior colleges and is home to the nation's "Best Army ROTC Early Commissioning Program". The school is located in the Pennsylvania Main Line suburb of Wayne in Radnor Township, USA (outside of Philadelphia). ... Read more

Product Description

In this book Alexia Bloch examines the experiences of a community of Evenki, an indigenous group in central Siberia, to consider the place of residential schooling inidentity politics in contemporary Russia. Residential schools established in the 1920s brought Siberians under the purview of the Soviet state, and Bloch demonstrates how in the post-Soviet era, a time of jarring social change, these schools continue to embody the salience of Soviet cultural practices and the spirit of belonging to a collective. She explores how Evenk intellectuals are endowing residential schools with new symbolic power and turning them into a locus for political mobilization.

In contrast to the binary model of oppressed/oppressor underlying many accounts of state/indigenous relations, Bloch's work provides a complex picture of the experiences of Siberians in Soviet and post-Soviet society. Bloch's research, conducted in a central Siberian town during the 1990s, is ethnographically grounded in life stories recorded with Evenk women; surveys of households navigating histories of collectivization and recent, rampant privatization; and in residential schools and in museums, both central to Evenk identity politics.

While considering how residential schools once targeted marginalized reindeer herders, especially young girls, for socialization and assimilation, Bloch reveals how class, region, and gendered experience currently influence perspectives on residential schooling. The analysis centers on the ways vehicles of the Soviet state have been reworked and still sometimes embraced by members of an indigenous community as they forge new identities and allegiances in the post-Soviet era.

Customer Reviews (1)

A long and twisting road
ok so I am her dad and I have conflicts in writing this review, but here goes anyway. The index is excellant, and there are more foot notes than anybody has a right to wish for. The story is wonderful as it digs into the social structure of post wwII familes caught is wildly changing times in this not often visited part of Sibereia. In fact, when the author as a undergraduate first went I haddeep concerns as a parent, I should not have. Now back to the book. If you really want to gain a feel for the impact on the lives of both parents and their childern in this region, then read this book. Also to get some prespective of just how sheltered our everyday lives here iare read this book. Given all that is and is about to take place in the world,this book could help one get a grasp on some of the issues facing us all. ... Read more

Product Description
The book is divided into three main parts as follows: Part I - Beginnings, Part II - Changing Times, and Part III - Life on the Hill. Part I has the following sections: Ancient History, The Irvine Years: 1893-1928, A Mystery Solved, Trophies from the Irvine Era, Ornaments of Keil Hall, "The Victor" - A Mercersburg Icon, The Chapel, The Main Hall Fire. Part II has the following sections: Austerity and the Development I the Edwards Era, The Tippetts Era: an Open Door, The James Buchanan Cabin, Mercersburg at War, Growth and Change During the Fowle Administration, Celebrating Diversity, Women at Mercersburg, The Burgin Years: Building Through the Centennial. Part III has the following sections: Life in the Classroom, Athletic Powerhouse, Jimmy Curran, A Great Program, Rites of Passage: Field Day, Hazing, and the Williams Cup, The Irving and Marshall Societies, Stony Batter, Music at Mercersburg, Bryan Barker, Henry Harbaugh and "The Academy Hymn", Some Academy Organizations over the Years, The Library, Student Government, The Infirmary, A Death, The Dining Hall, Crime and Punishment, Dances with Wolves, Saturdays, Downtown Hangouts, The Town of Mercersburg, The Queen of the Valley, Outreach and Public Service, An Unabridged Glossary of Mercersburg Vocabulary, The School Store, The School Farm, Odds & Ends, The Laundry Saga, Mercersburg's Arctic Connections, Mercersburg's Alumni, Earthshaking Events 1893-1993, and The Second Century. ... Read more

Product Description
Nicholas Nickleby is a kind-hearted and honest young man who struggles to eke out a living to support his poverty stricken mother and sister. In order to earn his keep, Nicholas takes a teaching position at a deprived boarding school full of poor and hungry students, where under the rule of the cruel and corrupt one-eyed Wackford Squeers, his honourable nature chafes against the brutal regime. But in this depraved environment, sometimes even friendship and compassion can flourish..."Nicholas Nickleby" is the captivating story of one man's journey to fight a school's brutal and tyrannical rule, and a lesson in the consequences for those who conspire to bring about his downfall. This special edition features an exclusive introduction by the highly-acclaimed writer Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain's leading literary biographers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (37)

Good Gateway to Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby isn't the best book Dickens ever wrote, but it is one of the most entertaining. Ostensibly, it's the story of how, after his father's death, Nicholas (and his sister and mother) rose in the world, achieved success in life in business, and had adventures on the way, but it's much, much more than that.

It's the minor characters that make a lot of this book; from the Kenwigses to the Crummles, Henrietta Petowker to Madame Mantalini, the minor characters are by turn pathetic and eccentric, but always hilarious. Nicholas himself is a likable character, but it's the characters he interacts with, and his weird adventures, that make this book as funny and entertaining as it is.

Overall, I'd say this was a good gateway book to Dickens; it's very melodramatic, but it never feels like a soap opera; Dickens puts a new spin on everything from government workers being courted by lobbyists to working conditions under incompetent bosses. It's long, but the pages fly by, and it's not as dark as David Copperfield or as formal as A Tale of Two Cities. If you haven't ever read Dickens, this might be a good book to start with- and if you have, this is a must-read book that will keep you chuckling for hours.

This Is Not A Review of Nicholas Nickleby
This short review is not about Charles Dickens or his fantastic book - Nicholas Nickleby. This review is about Robert Whitfield. Although I'm not an avid book listener (maybe 30 within my life so far) I found the reading of Dickens by Robert Whitfield to be absolutely fantastic! There are many good voice actors out there but Robert is the best I've ever heard. Every aspect of the reading is amazing... from the different voices to his clear narrative reading of the English language the way it was meant to be spoken. I picked up the 25 cd version from the library and when I can I'm going to purchase a copy for myself. It's THAT good. Buy this and you will not be disappointed.

Forgive him for his overdraft of wordiness
Matches Great Expectations (Oxford World's Classics) in the ultimately good-natured story of Nicholas, sister Kate, Mrs. Nickleby, evil Uncle Ralph Nickleby, and numerous side characters.Some mystery, some tragedy, ultimately resolved for the good with much humor.

Dickens's one fault, probably more the age than his, is that of flowery and immensely wordy romanticism when he tries to get serious.Get over it, forgive him for the overdraft of wordiness, and pay this worthy classic its time-honored due.

I actually read this in a pocket-sized hardback edition from 1900!Well before ISBN and obviously not for sale on Amazon, so I posted this review to the Penguin Classics edition because I find them the best presented and most affordable versions of the classics.

WONDERFUL recording, though unfortunately abridged.
I grew up listening to this audiobook and I have adored Nickleby ever since. Siberry's narration and character voices are superb, particularly his Yorkshire accents. The eccentricities of Dickens' characters are truly accentuated by the narrator's character voices, making this audio version of the story a truly delightful experience. If only it weren't abridged! It's still a worthwhile buy, particularly if you don't have the time or energy for the 800+ page novel.

Worth Reading
Nicholas Nickleby might not be the best book ever written (certainly some other book wins that prize (and it is likely that that book is widely available)), but it is still worth reading.It is long, yes, but it has plenty of things to recommend it:interesting characters, comic interludes, and a touching (if a bit sentimental conclusion).Perhaps the book's main problem is that Nicholas Nickleby (the character, not the eponymous book) is a bit too good.His character doesn't change, and his probity can become annoying.One imagines that Dickens could have fixed this shortcoming quite easily:he could have had Nicholas drink a bit too much and stagger around; he could have had Nicholas pick the pocket of some Londoner (he needs money, after all); he could have given Nicholas a hook for a hand (a device he used to great effect in a later novel); he could have had Nicholas use a few bad words (which perhaps is unlikely given that Dickens wrote in the 19th century, though one might suggest that an editor could jazz up a new edition); or any other numerous things.As it stands, Nicholas is the least interesting character.It's a good thing that many other characters (e.g. Newman Noggs, Ralph Nickleby, Mulberry Hawk, Smike, Wakford Squeers (Jr. and Sr.), Mrs. Nickelby, Vincent Crummles, and pretty much every other character other than Nicholas himself) carry the book.Except for Nicholas' sister; she's too good as well.In fact, one of the more annoying aspects of Dickens work is his brother-sister pairs (see Dombey and Son, Hard Times).Still, you should read this book. ... Read more