Caddie Woodlawn is the story of an 11-year-old tomboy named Caroline “Caddie” Woodlawn growing up in the pioneer days of Wisconsin in the 1860s. Caddie’s family had moved from Boston to the Wisconsin prairie seven years previous to the beginning of this tale. When the family first arrived, Caddie and her sister, Mary, had been sickly. After Mary died, Caddie’s father decided that she should be allowed to run with her brothers and not stay at home learning women’s chores. As a result, Caddie grows up to be a strong girl with a taste for adventure, much to the chagrin of her mother who would like Caddie to be more “ladylike.”Over the course of the book Caddie shows her adventurous spirit, as she gets into all sorts of mischief. However, her biggest adventure comes when she rides out across the wilds in order to save her Native American neighbors from an attack by white men. The Native Americans who live near the Woodlawns are understandably wary, yet friendly people and Caddie makes friends with them—particularly with a Native American man called “Indian John.” Nonetheless, due to ignorance and misunderstanding combined with stories of massacre from nearby Minnesota, rumors of local native uprising begin to be whispered. When Caddie overhears a plan to attack the Native Americans who have only ever been her friends, Caddie takes action. —Jacqueline Danziger-Russell
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