Buffalo Soldier

Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman (Walker Books)

PB RRP $ 16.95

ISBN 9781406314595

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Many things inspire artistic and memorable works like this one. Strange things, personal things, and things we’ve seen, read or experienced. Tanya Landman was mistaken for a boy until the age of fourteen. She was also inspired by the real life of the slave, Cathy Williams, who disguised herself as a man to become a Buffalo Soldier.

Landman courageously explores the notion of freedom and its complexity; the misuse of absolute power and its corruption, and the blood lust of the war era. She thrusts the history of man’s inhumanity in our faces and says, ‘I dare you to look.’

All the characters in the book regardless of colour, class and position in life, have things in common. Each group has ranks; there are levels of authority in place with orders to be obeyed without the option of choice. This common thread is an important element in the story.

The young slave girl Charlotte becomes Charlie O’Hara to join the army; her only means of survival after being freed. We travel with her from just before the Civil War until the removal of the last Apache from their reservation. This gut-wrenching and desolate content is explosive and heartbreaking. The injustices experienced by slaves and Indians at the hands of soldiers are painful. I had to stop frequently and set the book aside due to the overwhelming sadness that engulfed me.

But these dismal components share the space with a moving love story. Past all the slaughter, ugliness and desolation of war crawls love. Unexpected and uninvited, it surprises Charlie and with its power, and changes the look and feel of everything she’s part of.

This is an outstanding book that will be returned to again because of its superb narrative voice, confronting yet undeniable truths, and strong historical content. A brilliant piece of work based on history, it is one of the best books I have ever read.

Caution: this book contains highly graphic and disturbing scenes.

Ghetto Cowboy

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson (Candlewick Press)
PB RRP $ 16.95
ISBN 9780763664534
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

This highly interesting book brings into focus the obscure subject of black American cowboys.  It sent me straight to the computer to learn about the history of black cowboys which stems from prior to the Civil War.

Unable to cope with her recalcitrant son’s truancy, and living in fear of a pending juvenile facility for reform, Cole’s mother drives him thousands of miles to a father he’s never seen. The cowboy ghetto where the boy is dumped houses horses saved from the slaughterhouse, and is run by Cole’s father Harper as an initiative for young boys to stay out of trouble. 

Harper is a gifted horse whisperer and looked up to in the ghetto. Cole’s built up resentment slowly dissipates when he befriends and learns to ride the old hack, Boo. But their white Council moves to take over their land for development. What will become of the confiscated horses and the boys whose lives were saved from delinquency? Will the Cowboy Way defeat the scheme?

This is a moving story of fighting for what you believe in and finding your place in the world, wherever it may be. Written in authentic language, it addresses themes of broken lives, poverty, community and survival.