At about 8:15 this morning, I lost my precious kitten Capaldi to some sudden, unknown illness. He was barely 6 months old.

 

 

I have no idea what killed him. I woke up this morning to get my son ready for school, and Capaldi was lying by my bed, gasping and unable to walk. When I got back from dropping my son at school, I laid on the floor by our kitten and waited with him. I knew it was too late for any vet to save him. I worked in a cat sanctuary for a long time, and there's just a certain look they get when it's time for them to leave.

 

When he was gone, I cried for a long time and just held him. He was just a baby. He deserved a long, happy life.

 

 

It's been a bad day. Last year I lost my greyhound I loving called my old lady Britt. This year I lost my little baby kitty. Sometimes life just isn't fair. I just have to cherish the time I had with him, those short 2 months, and be grateful I still have 2 incredibly healthy cats to love.

 

This is a small biography of Carlos Montezuma. It's very well-written and has nice illustrations, as well as real pictures of Carlos.I've never read about Carlos Montezuma before, but I'm glad now that I have, even if it was only short biography about him for children. The biography was taken from a letter about his life, which he wrote himself.Carlos did a lot during his life and tried his best to help Native Americans. I really enjoyed reading about his life. This book was a great read.

In this paraphrase of original texts by Red Bird, author Gina Capaldi retells the stories of this Native American girl who grew up between the world of her native people and the white people. “It was night when we reached the school grounds and were led toward an open door. The noisy hurrying of hard shoes upon a bare wooden floor whirring in my ears frightened me, and I began to cry. The Angos could not understand the cause of my tears and placed me at a table loaded with food. Because of my sobs, I could swallow very little that evening. I was tucked into bed with one of the tall girls. She talked to me in my mother’s tongue and soothed me. Many events would follow, which would force me to be brave in a cold, unknown world.”

The Civil War ended black slavery, but did nothing to improve the treatment of Native Americans. When Wassaja was five years old, enemy Pima raided his community and took him prisoner. After a few days of abuse he was sold into slavery. He was less unfortunate than many children, as he was bought by an Italian photographer who purchased him out of pity rather than for labor. Renamed Carlos Montezuma and given an education, he grew up to be a medical doctor and civil rights campaigner.

Because his foster-father was a photographer, an unusual number of images of Montezuma at various ages, as well as other members of his community, are extant and were incorporated into the illustrations. These were very effective. I was also impressed that Montezuma managed to research all his family members and find out what had happened to each of them (although the information itself was pretty discouraging, especially about his mother escaping but being shot by American guards for attempting to find him without permission).

A very interesting book about an important subject. Parents may want to read up on the history beforehand in case of questions.

A very sweet, very humane story of a girl being taken away from her land and learning to cope. The story of Zitkala-a is one of loss, but also of tremendous hope, of progress and tradition. It's inspirational, which is why it's so good to make it into a picture book and make it more accessible to everyone. The artwork is good, focusing more on colour to convey emotions rather than on anatomic accuracy and perspective. All in all, it adds up to good effect.Note: A copy of this book was provided by the publishers via NetGalley.