Product Description

A Quaker girl's diary reflects her experiences growing up in the Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and her capture by Lenape Indians in 1763.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #177899 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 186 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Set in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania in 1763 and written in journal format, this book tells the story of Caty Logan, a Quaker girl who is upset by news of Indian raids on nearby farms. Although her father explains that these attacks are in retaliation for promises broken by the settlers and the English government, she is still frightened. While on their way to school several weeks later, Caty and her brother are captured by a group of Lenape. Although she fears that they will both be murdered, they are not harmed and are given to two members of the tribe who had lost children to measles, a disease brought by white traders. Through her friendship with Snow Hunter, a young man who had been captured nine years earlier, Caty gains an understanding of these people and their beliefs. She also begins to fall in love with him. Eventually, English soldiers rescue the girl and her brother. Caty's return to Quaker life is very difficult; she feels estranged from her mother and her old friends and yearns for Snow Hunter and her Indian family. Osborne successfully sustains readers' attention with a strong story line while informing them about American history. Through Caty's experiences, they will gain a clearer understanding of the Quaker religion and the beliefs of the Lenape. Complete with background information and illustrations depicting life during this era, this is a solid piece of historical fiction.
Ann M. Burlingame, North Regional Library, Raleigh, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 3^-6. This offering in the Dear America series (see also White's Voyage on the Great Titanic, reviewed below) introduces Catharine Carey Logan, a 13-year-old Quaker girl living in rural Pennsylvania in 1763. When Caty and her younger brother, Thomas, are captured by a band of Lenape warriors, she fears the worst. For months she rails against her captors at every opportunity, despite their humane treatment of her. Then, her blossoming friendship with Snow Hunter, an English captive who has decided to remain with the tribe permanently, helps her see the good in this very different culture. Although she is eventually recaptured by the English, her newfound empathy for the Lenape lifestyle leaves her an alien in her own world. Osborne's strength is her portrayal of Caty's gradual realization that the Lenape are not savages but human beings with views as legitimate as her own. Appended with a historical note, period artwork, maps, and drawings, this will be popular with history buffs and classes studying Pennsylvania history. Kay Weisman

Customer Reviews

A great captive story
Standing in the Light was a wonderful Dear America book, and one I could read over and over.

It tells, in diary form, about 13 year old Caty Logan who is growing up in her Quaker village in the 1760's. She is perfectly happy, with boys, learning housewifery, and schoolwork to keep her busy - but that all changes one day when she and her younger brother are captured by Lenape Indians.

At first Caty is desperate: she hates living with the rough Indians, who watch her diary writing curiously and force her to follow their Indian ways. But later, she learns that they are good people, though different than the Quakers, and she begins to make friends - and loved ones.

This was a great book! You really care about what will happen, if Caty will stay with them or return to her village. It was sad, but I love it!

I'd recommend this for ages 10 - 14, and I'd recommend some other captive stories: Trouble's Daughter, I Am Regina, Indian Captive, and Calico Captive.

Solid, but occasionally annoying...
I am a college student at home on summer break, and because my mother is a teacher, we have a variety of children's books sitting around the house. I just spent an enjoyable afternoon reading through Mary Pope Osborne's Standing in the Light.

Though the book is targeted at 4th - 7th grades, it is well-written enough to appeal to older readers. I found several passages of the book to be particularly poetic, and the simple, clear writing, while making the book easy to read, was quite elegant in its brevity. Many adult writers could learn from Osborne's style.

The story was certainly compelling enough, if a bit slow at the beginning. Perhaps because I'm an older reader and was able to zip through the book fairly quickly, I didn't find the rest of it to drag at all, and I became increasingly absorbed in the story.

While this book is very good (I give it three stars not because I think it is deficient, but because I'm very sparing with four and five star ratings), I would like to mention that conservative Christian parents might want to be aware that the underlying worldview of this book is very inclusivist, with the implication that all religions are equally valid. Religious tolerance is certainly a good lesson, and it is an important theme of this book. At the same time, Osborne's angle on it seems to me to be an affirmation of the equality of all religions. While I think we can agree about the equality of all people, clearly, most people who actually believe in a religion consider it unique. That said, I certainly wouldn't say that parents shouldn't allow children to read this book; it could possibly be a good springboard for discussion on both tolerance and the uniqueness of Christianity.

(The above comments, of course, were directed solely toward Christian parents who might want to be aware of such things, and were not meant as an absolute criticism on the book. Please don't be offended if Osborne's view is the same as yours. I'm not in the habit of disliking books just because the point of view disagrees with mine, but I write simply because I know parents like to know such things.)

I also have to mention another thing that slightly annoyed me throughout the book, which was the incorrect use of "thee" and the absence of the word "thou." Now, perhaps I should look this up to confirm it, but I do not believe that the Quakers used "thee" as a nominative pronoun. The characters in this book, however, say things such as "Thee is" and even "Thee are." The problem, here, of course, is that the subject of a sentence should be "thou," not "thee," and also that "thee" is a singular pronoun, not a plural. Also, the correct verb with "thou" is "art," not "is." Sometimes, also, Osborne uses the "thou" verb conjugation (adding an "st" at the end of the verb) with a third-person subject, such as "God dost," which is also completely incorrect. Now, if the Quakers actually spoke with incorrect archaic English, then I am certainly incorrect in my criticism. However, the constant misuse of the pronouns in the dialogue did continually grate on my nerves.

These long criticisms aside, however, Standing in the Light is a well-written book.

A beautifully written story about a young girl growing up.
Living in Pennsylvania's Delaware Valley in 1763, thirteen-year-old Catharine "Caty" Logan's biggest concern is getting one of the boys at school, Jess Owen, to notice her without becoming vain - a sin for Quakers like Caty and her family. But after a group of settlers massacre the inhabitants of a peaceful Indian village, Caty is terrified that the Indians will retaliate by attacking settlers. Her worst fears come true when she and her little brother Thomas are capture by a band of Lenape Indians and taken to their camp. Even though Caty is adopted into an Indian family and treated with kindness, she rebels against her captors every chance she has. It takes the love of a young warrior, Snow Hunter, once a captive like Caty, but who chose to remain with the Indians, for Caty to understand that the Indians are people just like herself, and she finds a sense of belonging. The story was told in the form of Caty's diary. Mary Pope Osborne did a wonderful job of bringing the language, customs, and events of the 1760s to life.