Fatty Legs: A True Story

Reading Level: Grades 3-6

Be careful what you wish for.

After her older half-sister reads her part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but refuses to tell why Alice followed the rabbit down the hole, nine-year-old Olemaun nags her parents to send her to the school of the white outsiders. Even though her father warns her that they will cut her hair, give her a new name and not allow her to speak their language , Olemaun so desperately wants to read that she persists until she gets her way.

Once in the clutches of the dark-cloaked nuns, Olemaun realizes what a horrible mistake she has made. Somehow she must hold onto who she is until she can finally return to her people.

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More books by Christy Jordan-Fenton

More narratives of Indian boarding schools include:

Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell and

Indian School: Teaching the White Man's Way by Michael Cooper