Product Description

It is 1654 in New England, native land of Algonquin tribes, among them the Pocasset, Wampanoag, and Narrangansett people. The pilgrims -- called Coat-men by the Wampanoag -- have settled here in the natives' territory at Patuxit, a place that the Pilgrims have renamed Plymouth. Weetamoo's father, Corbitant, is sachem, or chief, of the Pocassets. He is mistrustful of the colonists and imparts his beliefs about them to his daughter, who is next in line to become chief. Weetamoo must learn the fundamental values and disciplines of a true Pocasset chief.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66004 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 203 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780439129107
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Using a diary format, Smith describes Weetamoo's life as a young teen in Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 1653. Constantly struggling with gender roles, she wants to hunt, and challenges boys to contests of skill. She surreptitiously follows her father as he meets with the Coat-men, or white settlers, at Plimoth Plantation. Eventually, she goes through a coming-of-age ceremony that involves a sweat lodge, fasting, and visions that foretell of later conflicts between the settlers and the Native Americans. Before the narrative comes to an abrupt end, she has matured into a future leader, or sachem, of the Pocasset tribe. A foreword explains that the real Weetamoo could not read or write, and would never have kept a diary. In the novel, Weetamoo makes line drawings on birchbark to illustrate her points, and often ponders learning to write as she observes the Coat-men, but she is not willing to convert to Christianity to do so. The final 50 pages provide further factual information, and readers may find Weetamoo's adult life more interesting than the fictionalized account of her youth. Michael Dorris's Morning Girl (Hyperion, 1992) provides a more original portrayal of early Native Americans.
Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. The latest addition to the Royal Diaries series explores the everyday life of a 14-year-old Wampanoag girl in the mid-1600s. The oldest daughter of Corbitant, sachem of the Pocasset band of the Wampanoag Nation, Weetamoo was born around 1641. Aspiring to be sachem after her father, Weetamoo struggles with her impatience while trying to learn the skills that she will need to lead her people, and she attempts to understand the visions of "bitter wars" that come to her during her spiritual fasts. Filled with details of daily life, this "diary" offers a comprehensive look at seventeenth-century Wampanoag culture, including the tribe's disagreements over how best to deal with the white-skinned "Coat-men." A foreword explains more about the Wampanoag, and endnotes offer detailed information about Weetamoo's family and her later life, interactions between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag. A glossary, illustrations, and maps are included, as well. The author, part Algonquin of Micmac descent, has translated her long fascination with Weetamoo into a lively yet ultimately tragic tale that vividly evokes the time period. Karen Hutt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Wonderful,as good as anyone could expect after the long wait
Finally! After all of the Royal Diaries fans across the nation anxiously waited for the publication of Weetamoo for over two years it's finally here!
This diary covers the teenage years of Weetamoo, the oldest daughter of the sachem of the Pocasset Native Americans, Corbitant, but basically it focuses on the turbulent changes that Weetamoo goes through that will affect her deply when she inherits the role of sachem over the Pocassets. This diary was special in this appraised series. As the author frequently composes, Weetamoo did not write. The Pocassets put their stories down in wampum belts or birchbark pictures. But mostly they handed down their stories orally. In this case, we dive into Weetamoo's thoughts because her imposing father quietly asks his daughter to find some peace and quiet time during her days and reflect with herself, as she is rowdy and wild, and she must learn to contain herself in order to become a true Pocasset sachem. Through almost 150 pages of Weetamoo's thoughts and little birchbark pictures that she composes to keep a memory of her thoughts (and struggles to hide them) we see Weetamoo's daily life. This is what is also special about this diary. Most of the other diaries describe lessons and balls and diplomacy. However, this diary showed the spirit of an average kid. Weetamoo played with her friends, she talked about boys and other things a teenage girl would talk about with her best friend Cedar, who is also destined to become a sachem, and she of course has to do household chores with her mother and her younger sister, Wootenasuke. There are a few funny moments throughout the diary, and Weetamoo's style and voice is much like that of kids today. Memorable moments scatter this book, from the delightful ones such as Weetamoo following her father and his entourage to Plymouth through the poison ivy and sumac and her meeting with her future second husband, Wamsutta, in the woods to the eerie, prophetic, and practically haunting dreams that Weetamoo and Cedar have when they undergo their vision quests. Dreams of villages burning, rivers soaked in native blood and bodies, visions of Weetamoo as an older woman without her husband (prophesizing his death), and Cedar and Weetamoo's eventual departure from their friendship.
All in all, this book was a wonderful read, a great contribution to the series, and just as good as I had hoped for after my anxious 2 year wait. To the side, a reason I liked it all the more is because normally we read about Native Americans who helped the English, like Pocahontas and Sacajawea (just as the author puts in her note). But now we have the chance to enter the world of not only a Native American that many have not heard of and is fresh to our minds, but also one that stood up to the English.
The epilogue, historical note, and appendices are packed with information ranging from Weetamoo's tragic death along with her other childhood friends to Pocasset customs to the hostility between Plymouth colonists and their friends, the natives of Metacom (King Philip). The only thing I was disappointed with was there was no explanation as of why this book took so long to come out. Other than that, I loved this book and it is one of my favorites, not only because it was a very fun read and packed with information but also because it is one of the only books in the series that kids can truly connect with and relate to. I highly recommend.

Also, a little overview of upcoming Royal Diaries, all found from my own investigation:

Lady of Palenque by Anna Kirwan, due out in March, 2004
Kazunomiya by Kathryn Lasky, due out in May, 2004
Maria Theresa by ----, due out in August, 2004
Catherine the Great by Kristiana Gregory, due out in Fall, 2004

Visit my Royal Diaries site (http://royaldiaries.freeservers.com)

An excellent addition to the Royal Diaries series.
Fourteen-year-old Weetamoo is the oldest daughter of Corbitant, sachem to the Pocasset band of the Wampanoag Nation. Even though she is a girl, Weetamoo is the one who will inherit her father's position someday. But it's 1653, and her tribe's home in what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island is changing forever. The settlements of the English "Coat-men" are expanding onto the Pocassets' territory, and Weetamoo wonders what will be left once she becomes her people's leader. Over nearly a year, Weetamoo describes her life as the seasons change and she undergoes a ritual fast and vision quest. There has been a long wait for this book in the Royal Diaries series to be released, but I am glad to say it's as good as I expected. I highly recommend Weetamoo's story to all Royal Diaries fans.

I Thought this Book was Never Published!
Even though this book is said to have never been published, I finally found a copy of it.This is the story of the young Indian girl named Weetamoo. She is the daughter of the chief of the Pocasset Indians, who once lived in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In her new diary, Weetamoo tells of her Indian life, the colonies that are now threatening her land, and the brewing war between the colonists and the Indians, that would soon become known as King Philip's War, in which Weetamoo would drown in as she tried to escape when she was an adult. Other than the dark subjects of this story, you are also introduced to Indian life. The rituals that the young girls take, the food,clothing, houses, all of the pieces of survival are seen here but in a different kind of way. While the other Royal Diaries' princesses live in big luxurious mansions and chateaus and palaces, Weetamoo lives in a small tribe of long houses and other Indian homes. I thought this book was exceptionally good. It lives up to the best of the Royal Diaries-it shows Weetamoo's true character, her teenage life, how she used her head to deal with things, and how she is to deal with her father's preparations for her to marry. Weetamoo had quite a life , but she enjoyed it. I would say anyone who is a true fan of the Royal Diaries should read this, don't just buy it to complete your collection, which I have all 12 now(and I'm now awaiting Jahanara). the first few pages are boring and there are some dull moments every now and then, but, hey, maybe her life really was dull and boring, that's what the Royal Diaries are about-bringing boring princesses to life. This book includes an epilogue, a historical note, pictures, and a family tree, all in the back.

Also recommended-all of the Royal Diaries books(except for Cleopatra, which is too political, Nzingha, which you can finish in an hour it's so short, and Sondok, which was too dull and most of it was made up anyway), the Young Royals series, the Dear America series, and any book on Pocahontas