Arilla Sun Down

If you like stories about teenager's struggling with difficulties in life that you learn from, you will love this book. This book does not go in chronological order it is told in little snippets of a little girls memory. Arilla who is trying to find her identity but is held back because of her crazy brother and being interracial. Her mother is African American and her father is Indian, so she wants to have an Indian name to show her place in the Indian community. When she goes to visit her father's family, she is called Moon. Ordinarily, she lives in the white community, but people talk about her family because they are interracial. She is trying to live a normal 12-year-old's existence until an accident happens that will forever change her life. Her brother Sun is wounded badly when he falls off horse they are riding together. She must save him and all the while she is saying Arilla, Sun is down on the ground. Read this intriguing, heartwarming, exciting, powerful, meaningful selection, and it will show what love, hate and life is really all about.

Arilla Sun Down is the Virginia Hamilton book I reread the most. I read it first when I was a teacher of seventh graders; I read it when my children were in seventh grade; I always read it when I give book talks about children's books; I read it also when I am working with Native American books with students. I often read it aloud with students just to get them involved in it; the first part is a little different from most books; I like the way the words flow. Kids like the sibling rivalry of Arilla and her brother. I like the fact that Arilla comes from a home in which the mother is Native American and the father is African American--the bi-racial aspect. It's hard to find books with interracial families; this is one of the few and one of the best--if not the best. My female students like the parts about horses; my male students like the parts about Sun (Arilla's brother) finding his identity, being assertive when the townspeople are prejudiced against his family. All of my students like the boy-girl relationships and friendships. I recently introduced this book in my teachers book club. We read books that are for children or adolescents--but also for adults. They are books for everyone, just good books. I don't think Arilla Sun Down is a children's book; it's a book that children might read, if adults introduce them to it. Mostly it's a book that focuses on a family and particularly on the children in that family. This book is interesting because it reacquaints adults with their growing up years and tells us more about life itself at any age.