A deeply personal author’s note about the story’s inspiration may leave readers wishing for additional resources for further study and more clarity about her use of Lakota/Dakota. Hanna’s encounters with women of the nearby Ihanktonwan community are a treat they hint at the whole world beyond a White settler perspective, a world all children deserve to learn about. Park brings new depth to these well-trodden tales, though, as she renders visible both the xenophobia of the town’s White residents, which ranges in expression from microaggressions to full-out assault, and Hanna’s fight to overcome it with empathy and dignity. Fans of the Little House books will find many of the small satisfactions of Laura’s stories-the mouthwatering descriptions of victuals, the attention to smart building construction, the glorious details of pleats and poplins-here in abundance.

It’s 1880, and they endure challenges similar to those faced by the Ingallses and so many others: dreary travel through unfamiliar lands, the struggle to protect food stores from nature, and the risky uncertainty of establishing a livelihood in a new place. A “half-Chinese and half-white” girl finds her place in a Little House–inspired fictional settler town.Īfter the death of her Chinese mother, Hanna, an aspiring dressmaker, and her White father seek a fresh start in Dakota Territory.

Prairie lotus book