Gina Capaldi

Gertrude Simmons was born in 1876 in South Dakota on Yankton Sioux reservation. She left home at the age of 8 to go to boarding school. She loved learning to read and write and had quite the talent for speaking in public. She also loved music lessons. She found herself missing home and feeling as though she was "caught between two worlds not able to be fully in one or the other. She missed home and found herself speaking publicly about inequality for women and the mistreatment of her people. She began writing in the Atlantic Monthly and became Zitkala-Sa or Red Bird. She continued writing and playing music. She and her husband continued their fight for equality for their people. The authors paraphrased the semiautobiographical stories Zitkala-Sa wrote in the Atlantic Monthly and combined them with information about her from a variety of sources.… (mere)

Genre: Biography
Age Appropriateness: 1st-4th
Media: Acrylic paint and Digital media?
Review/Critique:
One day Zitkala ended up leaving her reservation to become educated at a White Missionary school. The transition was very difficult and she felt like she had lost parts of her culture. As she got older she adapted to her new life and she ended up going to college. Her road was tough, but she ended up doing great things.

This is a good biography because the story format makes it very accessible to kids. It doesn't cover information from birth to death, but more focuses on her life from 7 through young adult. The pictures are very vibrant and the words are very understandable for a younger audience.… (mere)