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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
I was very excited to read this book, both because of it's beautiful cover and artwork and because I've loved so many books by Tonya Bolden. I was disappointed because it felt like the title went one way and the book another. It ended up feeling like a non-story, at least concerning Sarah Rector.
The more interesting aspect for me was the period of American history covered by the book and the set-up for how African-Americans could find themselves in this situation (becoming oil rich despite being poor) in the first place. The discussion of relocation of the various tribes and the natives' treatment of the African-Americans filled in gaps in my knowledge of history. The primary source information was also great.
I think a more interesting story would have used the history as the focus and woven in more examples of people other than Sarah Rector. Especially since so little is known of her life and she isn't particularly interesting.
The more interesting aspect for me was the period of American history covered by the book and the set-up for how African-Americans could find themselves in this situation (becoming oil rich despite being poor) in the first place. The discussion of relocation of the various tribes and the natives' treatment of the African-Americans filled in gaps in my knowledge of history. The primary source information was also great.
I think a more interesting story would have used the history as the focus and woven in more examples of people other than Sarah Rector. Especially since so little is known of her life and she isn't particularly interesting.
Hooray for bringing under-told stories forward!
Sarah Rector was child during the 1900-1910s, and found herself the owner of property with a lot of oil on it, during the height of the oil-seeking obsession. This book explains many pieces of history that I was totally ignorant about. The history of Oklahoma. The Indian Territories. The significant population of black "freeman" within the tribal populations. Guardianship law of the early 1900s.
This book explains a lot of fascinating history. And told by a black author! I'm always looking for ownvoices books to share with my community.
Unfortunately, I've been looking forward to reading this book for several years. Which means my expectations of it were not entirely accurate. And the title is a bit of a mis-sell. To me, the title implies that this will be a kidnapping mystery. But the period in which Rector was "missing" is a relative blip in the pages. I was startled when I came to the epilogue - I only felt maybe halfway through the story (many of the pages are taken up with finding aides, appendices, and other matter).
It feels like a glossy research paper of the kind that I LOVED writing during my academic career. Everything is cited, there are lots of primary sources (photographs, maps, and etc.).
But I don't think they were quite successful in making this a book I can sell to a wide audience. It's a little too dry, Rector never becomes quite an individual (probably because there are no primary-source records of her other than a couple of photographs), and the core story that I felt promised is overwhelmed by the contextual information. That contextual information is fascinating to me, but I can't imagine very many middle schoolers choosing to pick it up outside of an assignment.
Sarah Rector was child during the 1900-1910s, and found herself the owner of property with a lot of oil on it, during the height of the oil-seeking obsession. This book explains many pieces of history that I was totally ignorant about. The history of Oklahoma. The Indian Territories. The significant population of black "freeman" within the tribal populations. Guardianship law of the early 1900s.
This book explains a lot of fascinating history. And told by a black author! I'm always looking for ownvoices books to share with my community.
Unfortunately, I've been looking forward to reading this book for several years. Which means my expectations of it were not entirely accurate. And the title is a bit of a mis-sell. To me, the title implies that this will be a kidnapping mystery. But the period in which Rector was "missing" is a relative blip in the pages. I was startled when I came to the epilogue - I only felt maybe halfway through the story (many of the pages are taken up with finding aides, appendices, and other matter).
It feels like a glossy research paper of the kind that I LOVED writing during my academic career. Everything is cited, there are lots of primary sources (photographs, maps, and etc.).
But I don't think they were quite successful in making this a book I can sell to a wide audience. It's a little too dry, Rector never becomes quite an individual (probably because there are no primary-source records of her other than a couple of photographs), and the core story that I felt promised is overwhelmed by the contextual information. That contextual information is fascinating to me, but I can't imagine very many middle schoolers choosing to pick it up outside of an assignment.
Strangely enough, the title is only about one very small part of this book. The content is more about time period and situation for black freedmen when Sarah Rector was young, than about her actual disappearance. I found the history quite interesting. I thought I knew about the Oklahoma "sooners" but my knowledge about Indian Territory and the beginning of Oklahoma was sadly lacking. This filled in some of the blanks for me. I hadn't realized that some of the Native Americans were slaveholders. I had never known how or why some of the black towns had existed there in Oklahoma.
I think the title is slightly misleading because Sarah is a focus in the book, but her disappearance is not. Overall, the history is quite fascinating and would be helpful when studying the early nineteen hundreds in the U.S.
I think the title is slightly misleading because Sarah is a focus in the book, but her disappearance is not. Overall, the history is quite fascinating and would be helpful when studying the early nineteen hundreds in the U.S.
I learned quite a bit reading this book. I had no idea that Native Americans owned African American slaves, or that they took them with when the tribes were forced to move west. I also didn't know that with the Emancipation Proclamation these slaves were considered part of the Native American tribes and thus given land grants along with the rest of the tribal members. This tells the story of one such girl, Sarah Rector, a Creek freedman, when oil was discovered on her acreage. Her 12% take of the oil earnings made her very wealthy. An interesting look at lesser known story from the westward expansion of the United States and the discovery of oil in Oklahoma. Recommended to grades 4 & up.
I learned a lot from this book. I liked the layout but didn't always love the writing. It would be good for a middle school biography book report.
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book was confusing, mostly because it tried to tell Sarah Rector's story, which was interesting. I think the framing device was not right as (this is not really a spoiler) it seems Sarah Rector was never actually missing. I found it good for details about striking it rich off of oil in Oklahoma, the former slaves of Indians and also the many swindlers who wanted to take the money, but the whole book never gelled.
This book was confusing, mostly because it tried to tell Sarah Rector's story, which was interesting. I think the framing device was not right as (this is not really a spoiler) it seems Sarah Rector was never actually missing. I found it good for details about striking it rich off of oil in Oklahoma, the former slaves of Indians and also the many swindlers who wanted to take the money, but the whole book never gelled.
Fascinating story of a lesser-known story in a lesser-known (outside of Oklahoma) historical place and era: the turn-of-the-20th century oil boom in Oklahoma and how one 12-year old black girl became wealthy after oil was found on her land. White guardians were appointed to black minors who owned land like this, either because they were orphans or because their parents weren't deemed educated enough to handle the new wealth and attendant hassles; some guardians were honest but many were not. There's a lot of history to explain in this book but Bolden does her usual brilliant job of explaining it and keeping it interesting, because you need to know about the history of the Oklahoma "Sooner" land rush, the Creek Indians (Muscogee) and their black slaves; the free Blacks still being called "Freedmen" even though they were never slaves; and the early oil industry. At one point Sarah apparently goes missing, and all the newspapers sensationalize this. The author tells this well-researched story in a very lively and almost "folksy" way, for example that Sarah is "Ballyhooed" as being the richest black girl in America; that something was "the whole shebang," etc. Excellently designed book, great use of images and layout; glossary, index, extensive sources and citations. Very enjoyable and readable book.
I liked this bio but it left me wanting more information. I wish there had been more pictures of Sarah or more about her specifically. The mystery angles helped keep me interested but more information would have been nice.
This book is kind of misleading - at no point was Sarah Rector missing. There was a few days where a paper reported her as missing, but they were wrong. And while I think there is a story here, somewhere, this book doesn't really tell it.