Childhood Narratives

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Childhood Narratives

1.

Daughter of the Regiment: Memoirs of a Childhood in the Frontier Army, 1878-1898
by Mary Leefe Laurence, Thomas T. Smith. 208 pgs.

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"For children, who didn't know they were living under hardship, life on a western military post was exciting. . . . This account records a child's view of the military's last hurrah in the West."-Denver Post. "Written in 1944-45, the book offers Mary Leefe Laurence's eyewitness account, from ages six to 26, of life at a series of frontier forts, including Fort Dodge and Fort Leavenworth. . . . Laurence offers rare glimpses of Western life and of a handful of historic figures, including Geronimo."-Publishers Weekly. "The only known book-length memoir of childhood in the post-Civil War army . . . This rare memoir deserves a wide audience."-Kansas History.The young daughter of an English-born U. S. infantry officer on the post-Civil War frontier, Mary Leefe Laurence had the childhood of an army nomad, accompanying the regiment from south Texas to the Canadian border. In faithfully recording her travels, she offers extensive and unique insight into life as a child and adolescent in the twilight of the Indian-fighting army.Thomas T. Smith is a Regular Army Major of Infantry on assignment to the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the editor of A Dose of Frontier Soldiering: The Memoirs of Coporal E. A. Bode, Frontier Regular Infantry, 1877-1882.

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Title Page

CONTENTS

EDITORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

DEDICATION

PREFACE

AUTHOR'S FOREWORD

1: Fort Dodge, Kansas 1878-1880: Age Six to Eight Years

3: Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 1880-1881

5: DAVID'S ISLAND, NEW YORK 1881-1882

* 6: FORT RINGGOLD, TEXAS 1883-1886

Fort Clark, Texas 1886-1889

9: MOUNT VERNON BARRACKS, ALABAMA 1889--1890

10: Fort Brady, Michigan 1890--1896: Age Eighteen to Twenty-four Years

11: Fort Wayne, Michigan 1896-1898

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX
2.

A Short Season: Story of a Montana Childhood
by Don Morehead, Ann Morehead. 192 pgs.

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A Short Season is Don Morehead's bittersweet story of growing up on a Montana ranch during the 1940s. In 1941 his parents eagerly took up residence on a ten-thousand-acre sheep ranch in northern Montana. The entire family was soon caught up in the natural rhythm and grueling work of ranch life, meeting those challenges with energy, patience, and humor. The driving force behind the ranch and family was the father, Bill Morehead, the "hub around which activity spun". Don especially was drawn into his father's world, rarely leaving his side, and becoming known as his "small partner". When his father died suddenly in 1948, Don was left with lingering, irreducible grief and loneliness. Replete with marvelous details of ranching life, Don Morehead's story is also a sobering and moving meditation on childhood and the special relationship that can develop between father and son. Morehead returns us to the quiet surprises of the first short season with our parents and helps us better understand the inevitable sadness of moving on.

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Title Page

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue: Getting There

Backgrounds

Beginnings

The Ranch

The River

Life Cycles

Spring

Tending Camp

Lambing

Shearing

Summer

Trailing to Heart Butte

Indian Days

Horses

Woman's Work

Vacation

Fall and Winter

Boarding

Long Winters

The Last Season

Summer of 1948

Afterward

The First Year

Cut Bank

Adjustments

Leaving Montana

Selected Bibliography
3.

Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood
by Delphine Red Shirt. 148 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Acknowlegments

Introduction

Beads on an Anthill

Le Ina Mitąwa Ki + ̜ E, That Mother of Mine

Wi + ̜yą Nupa, Double Woman

Weighed Down by Buckskin

Death Part 1

Death Part 2

Our Resurrected Selves

Carnival at the Sun Dance

Wide Open Space

Winter

Waṡicuia Ya He? Do You Speak English?

Wild Plum Trees

My Grandfather's Sak Ye
4.

My Indian Boyhood
by Luther Standing Bear. 190 pgs.

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Title Page

NOTE

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Chapter I: THE SIOUX

Chapter II: BOWS AND ARROWS

Chapter III The Indian Boy and His Pony

Chapter IV: HUNTING AND FISHING

Chapter V: PLANTS, TREES, AND HERBS

Chapter VI: TANNING, PAINTING, AND DESIGNING

Chapter VII: GAMES

Chapter VIII: HOW CHIEFS ARE MADE

Chapter IX: MEDICINE MEN AND MUSIC

Chapter X: AT LAST I KILL A BUFFALO
5.

Adobe Days: Being the Truthful Narrative of the Events in the Life of a California Girl on a Sheep Ranch and in El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles While It Was Yet a Small and Humble Town
by Sarah Bixby Smith. 148 pgs.

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Contents

Index
6.

Moving to Nowhere: Children's Stories of Homelessness
by Mary E. Walsh. 192 pgs.

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This sensitive, insightful, and troubling book communicates, through the voices of children, the harsh life experiences of homelessness. Skilled clinical-developmental psychologist Dr. Mary Walsh presents a study that both analyzes the problem of homelessness and conveys the sadness, confusion, poverty, loneliness, and uncertainty with which "shelter" children must cope. Individual chapters address basic relationships common to all children--family, friends, and school--and then consider how these relationships are impacted by homelessness, the factors which lead to this condition, and the crowded, stressful life in the shelters.

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Title Page

Contents

Preface

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Nowhere Else to Go: Becoming Homeless

Chapter Three: Because We'Re Poor: Explanations of Homelessness

Chapter Four: Living Here's Not Bad but Not Good Enough: Shelter Living

Chapter Five: I Had to Leave Some Stuff Behind: Loss and Disappointment

Chapter Six: I'M Always Scared: Fear and Uncertainty

Chapter Seven: I'Ve Seen and I Know What I'Ve Seen: Violence and Substance Abuse

Chapter Eight: Waiting for Grammy to Call: Family Relationships

Chapter Nine: I Ain't Telling Them I'M in a Shelter: Friends

Chapter Ten: It Feels like I'M Dumb: School

Chapter Eleven: We Manage but It Isn't Easy: Coping

Chapter Twelve: Conclusion

References

Index
7.

A Place in El Paso: A Mexican-American Childhood
by Gloria Lopez-Stafford. 212 pgs.

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Contents

1: Prologue, 1949

2: The Second Ward and My Parents

3: St. Vrain Street

4: A Motherless Child

5: The Trouble with English

6: A September Party

7: Plata

8: Macho

16780

10: Sayings and Secrets

11: Hijo Natural

Part II

13: Sábado De Gloria

14: Life with María

15: Adiós

Part III: The Storefront

Part IV

18: Céfiro

19: El Sol

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21: If

22: Christmas
8.

Soldier: A Poet's Childhood
by June Jordan. 270 pgs.

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Title Page

Prologue

Part Two: Brooklyn

Part Three: Deep Sea Fishing And the Beach

Part Four: Boys and Cats

Part Five: Choosing, And Being Chosen Fighting, And Fighting Back

Part Six: More About My Father And My Mother: Fighting

Part Eight: My Uncle Teddy, My Raccoon, My First Resolution

Part Nine: Bravery, Heroes, And Some C0mplicati0ns

Part Ten: Promises, Apple Trees, and Pretty Miss Kitty

Part Eleven: The Only Last Chapter Of My Childhood
9.

Street Children in Kenya: Voices of Children in Search of a Childhood
by Philip Kilbride, Collette Suda, Enos Njeru. 162 pgs.

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The authors begin with an overview of homeless children around the world, then focus on the situation in Nairobi, Kenya.

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Title Page

Contents

Tables

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction: Kenyan Street Children from a Local and Global Perspective

Chapter 2 Methodology: Perspectives and Multiple Techniques

Chapter 3 Cultural Contexts for Street Children: Family and Childhood

Chapter 4 Nairobi: a City of Contrasts

Chapter 5 Kenyan Voices: Focus Group and Survey Responses

Chapter 6 Work Patterns, Occupational Spaces, and Survival Strategies

Chapter 7 Community Life and Social Organization of Street Children

Chapter 8 Personal Profiles

Chapter 9 Suffering on the Streets

Chapter 10 Applied: Multiple Strategies, Cultural Solutions, and the Way Forward

Bibliography

Index

About the Authors
10.

Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood (Holocaust childhood)
by Nechama Tec. 242 pgs.

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Title Page

Acknowledgments

Contents

Chapter One: The Approaching Shadow

Chapter Two: My World Before

Chapter Three: The Search Begins

Chapter Four: Left Alone

Chapter Five: Reunion

Chapter Six: A Pattern of LIfe

Chapter Seven: Without Money

Chapter Eight: And Now?

Epilogue
11.

Flares of Memory: Stories of Childhood during the Holocaust
by Anita Brostoff, Sheila Chamovitz. 344 pgs.

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In a series of writing workshops at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, survivors who were children or teens during World War II assembled to remember the pivotal moments in which their lives were irreparably changed by the Nazis. These "flares of memory" preserve the voices of over forty Jews from throughout Europe who experienced a history that cannot be forgotten. Ninety-two brief vignettes arranged both chronologically and thematically recreate the disbelief and chaos that ensued as families were separated, political rights were abolished, and synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed. Survivors remember the daily humiliation, the quiet heroes among their friends, and the painful abandonment by neighbors as Jews were restricted to ghettos, forced to don yellow stars, and loaded like cattle into trains. Vivid memories of hunger, disease, and a daily existence dependent on cruel luck provide penetrating testimonies to the ruthlessness of the Nazi killing machine, yet they also bear witness to the resilience and fortitude of individual souls bombarded by evil. "I don't think that there will be many readers who will be able to put this book down."--Jerome Chanes, National Foundation for Jewish Culture

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Title Page

Acknowledgments

Contents

Foreword

Timeline of the Holocaust

Map of Concentration Camps in Europe

Preface

Introduction

I: Snapshots: Jewish Life Before the Holocaust

Snapshots

War Arrives in Lithuania

A German Family

Betrayal

Parting

II: The Destruction of a Society

Herr B.

A Kristallnacht Journey

An Action Against the Jews

Leaving Germany, Leaving Home

Escape to England

The Best-Laid Plans

A Life-Defining Impression

The Harbinger of What?

The Beginning and the End

A Family Gone, One by One

The Abandonment of Mielec

A Shtetl's Life is Ended

What Ever Happened to the Jews of Skudvil?

III: Ruthlessness as a System

In the Dark

Theresienstadt

Dachau

Auschwitz, 1944

The Tenth Woman on Block Ten

The Means to Survive

The Gypsies

Nazi Murderers

How Many Made It?

The Law in Lithuania

Horrors of War

IV: The Lottery of Death and Life

German Roulette

My Sister Rieke

A Definition of Survival

An Unforgettable Passover Seder

Trying to Go Home

Bar Mitzvah Boy

The Skull with the Golden Braid

The Concentration Camp Lottery

The Girl with Wooden Shoes

The Wagon

The Child

V: Disguise as a Way of Hiding

In Constant Terror

Posing as a Christian

I Choose Life

Lost Families

Beyond Memory

A Hidden Child in Greece

VI: The Sustaining Power of Family Love

The Promise

A Mother's Courage

Miracles

A Dream of Milk

In Praise of Manual Labor

A Son in Deed

The Psychologist

VII: The Virtuous and the Vicious

A Narrow Escaper

The Kindness of Strangers

A Saintly Person

The Convent in Marseilles

Among the Righteous

The Killing Hunger

Captain Zimmer

The Volunteer Group

Mazel

The Farmer Kowarski

A Surprise Package

VIII: Disguise as a Way of Hiding

Lithuanian Friends

Unsung Heroes

Friend or Enemy?

Resist in Everything!

IX: Emergence into Light

The Golden Chain of Judaism

Flight to Freedom

The Last Hiding Place

One Day War, the Next Day Not

The Long Road After Liberation

On the Way to Health

An Ending and a Beginning

The Tiny Flame

X: The Aftermath: Remembering

The Aftermath

The Barber

Kaleidoscope: Salonika, Greece, 1945

The Sewing Basket

Children from the Camps Going to England

The Chief of the Gestapo

Herr Schluemper

The Miracle

To Bear Witness About the Holocaust

It Shall Not Be Forgotten nor Forgiven!

Addendum: Seen with My Own Eyes: Stories by American Liberators

The Photograph

Germany, 1945: View from a Tank

Gusen: a Nurse's Tale

A Letter from Dachau

I Saw Buchenwald

Re-Entry

Biographies of Survivor-Authors

Biographies of Survivor-Authors

Photographs of Liberator-Authors

Author Index

Story Index
12.

Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China
by Zhu Di Xiao. 255 pgs.

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This is the personal account of a man who grew up in China and witnessed tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. Born in Nanjing in 1958, Zhu Xiao Di was the son of idealistic, educated parents. His father and uncles joined the Communist movement in the 1930s during the Japanese occupation and were influential underground and military leaders throughout the revolution. Despite their honorable history, they fell into political disfavor by the time of the Cultural Revolution. In 1968, when Zhu was just ten years old, his mother and father were taken to different labor camps for "rehabilitation". In the face of this injustice, the Zhus struggled to maintain family ties and uphold traditional values. Eventually, the family was reunited and restored to some measure of prominence, and a monument was later erected in Nanjing in honor of Zhu's father, Zhu Qiluan. At the heart of this narrative are the trials of a family caught in the crosscurrents of history - from the early attractions of the Communist revolution to the national disaster that followed and the subsequent odyssey of recovery.

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Title Page

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: A Long-Awaited Son

Chapter 2: My First Year In School

Chapter 3: The Rebels Didn'T Get What They Wanted

Chapter 4: A Former Member of the Communist Party

Chapter 5: What Do You Want To Be?

Chapter 6: Letters That Helped Others

Chapter 7: I Want To Right This Wrong!"

Chapter 8: To Be, Or Not To Be

Epilogue

Index
13.

Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil-Rights Days
by Sheyann Webb, Rachel West Nelson, Frank Sikora. 150 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Illustrations

Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Three

Chapter Five

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Ten

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter. Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Four

Afterword
14.

Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black
by Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, Tracy L. Robinson, Janie Victoria Ward. 298 pgs.

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A collection of sixteen autobiographical essays by Africans in America, Afro-Caribbean and bi-racial college students, which explore the process of self-discovery and realization of cultural identity. They are accompanied by commentary from prominent African-American scholars Jewelle Taylor Gibbs and Peter C. Murrell. Together they create a vivid portrait of what it is like to grow up a a black person in America and offer a springboard to current debates about cultural identity and assimilation.

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Title Page

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Part I: Social Class and Race

Class and Race in Negotiating Identity

1: Born with a Veil

2: What is Black Enough?

3: Living Between the Lines

4: I Reconcile the Irreconcilable

Part II: Identity

The Social Construction of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

The Intersections of Identity

5: Color-Blind

6: Walking a Thin Line

7: Becoming Myself

8: Becoming Comfortable in My Skin

9: Caught Between Two Cultures

10: Lost in the Middle

Part III: Resilience and Resistance

Resilience and Resistance

11: Gotta Keep Climbin' All De Time

12: Finding Zion

13: Feeling the Pressure to Succeed

14: Running Hurdles

15: Reflections on My Survival

16: Quest for Peace

References

About the Editors, Contributors, and Foreword Writer

Index

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