A review by delgremmyaward
Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

3.0

I suppose there wasn’t much plot to this book, but then again neither was there in the Little House series. Mostly I appreciated the perspective of somebody whose family is not rooted in 19th century tradition; if there’s one thing Little House lacks, it’s diversity. If there’s another, it’s intercultural acceptance. Those books are centered on familial experience, on the “discovery” of a new land and the escaping the foreign new people encroaching on the old territory. While this book didn’t have much in the way of character development or events, it did offer an interesting study of what somebody whose family is as close in some ways— and more distant in others— than the Ingalls would find in a pioneer story. And, of course, it offers the perspective of a modern-day pioneer, a person who travels the country hoping to find a promise kept or realized somewhere else, somewhere away. That kind of voice is one that I’ve wanted to hear for some time, and it’s one that I think was more nuanced and understanding than some of the other Little House criticism I’ve read. (Ma was a lovely woman; no, she was a racist. Pa was a great man; no, he was a thief and a swindler. Laura was a writer; no, Rose was. America is beautiful; no, America is dirty.)

Anyway, this was good.