Dane County Library Service
201 W. Mifflin St.
Madison, WI 53703
608-266-4419
dclout@scls.lib.wi.us
Dane County Senior Readers
July/August 2008
- Evelyn Simmerman Reviews
- Shirley Kevil Reviews
- Stars by Pamela Wright
Evelyn Simmermon of Stoughton Reviews: Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
During World War II the U.S. government opened a Japanese Internment Camp called Tallgrass. It was located near Ellis, Colorado. the residents were people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast.
The story of Tallgrass is told by thirteen year old Rennie Stroud. She lives with her parents on a beet farm near Ellis. The Stroud family is very compassionate toward the residents of Tallgrass. Mr. Stroud hires some of the young men for day work on his farm (all the local boys are in Service). Mrs. Stroud, who is sickly, hires Japanese women to work in her home. Because of this, they are citied by Ellis residents who prefer to have nothing to do with camp residents.
Shortly after the camp is opened a local girl is murdered and the local people assume a camp resident is guilty. The Strouds suspect a local no-good boy. By the end of the book we know who is right.
The characters in the Jolly Stitcher’s quilting group; the live-in grandma whose mind goes in and out; the hardware store owner who is hooked on morphine; and Daisy, who becomes like a family member for the Strouds all add diversion and interest to the story.
Although this story is fiction, written after the author visited a former Japanese relocation camp in Southeast Colorado, it gives us an insight to what the Japanese residents in the United States went through during the war.
Shirley Kevil of Sun Prairie Reviews:The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman
In Tony Hillerman’s stories of the Southwest, he usually includes the same Navajo tribal police people in New Mexico. Officer Bernadette Manuelito is of the Navajo Tribal Police and new to her job. While on duty in the desert she discovers a dead man in a car who had been shot.
Joe Leaphorn is a retired tribal policeman who now tags along with Professor Louisa Bourbonette on one of her excursions. Usually to collect memories of elders for her history tapes.
Sgt. Jim Chee was accepted by Officer Bernadette’s mother, but no serious wedding plans were made.
The man found murdered in the car had a map that points to lost gold, so retired Navajo Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn steps in to solve the crimes.
Wiley Denton requested a tribal policeman to find his missing wife. Looking for the legendary mine, The Golden Calf, Wiley Denton offered McKay, a con-man, a large sum of money as he had been searching for the Golden Calf. His information was useless, so Denton shot and killed him.
On the closed down army base; bunkers were left. Gold deposits were found but Navajo guides gave wrong directions. Some people who were taking a short cut by the bunkers heard distant music and wailing and screaming. Another great read by Tony Hillerman!
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Stars
by Pamela Wright of Sun Prairie
Oh! the stars
dispatched across
the high expanse
of night!
They lift my eyes
from things mundane;
they strew
enchanting light!
March 1991
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