Rain is Not My Indian Name

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Cassidy Rain thinks that her life is perfect. She is about to, hopefully, have her first kiss, with who she has decided is the love of her life. She is a wonderful photographer and tonight is the eve of her birthday. After an interesting encounter with her best friend/love, she goes home. That night her friend dies, and Cassidy is plunged into a depression that lasts almost six months. Rain learns how get back to herself, a little at a time, through making new friends, getting closer with old ones, and getting back to her original interests.

While the main character of this novel is a Native American girl, and one of the main conflicts of this story centers around an event called "Indian Camp" there is very little representation of this culture in this story. The main area where the culture is represented is when Rain attends "Indian Camp" to take pictures for the local paper. 

An amazing young adult novel that represents Native American culture in a teenage perspective is Sherman Alexie's ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN. This story follows a main character who decides to get a better education through going to a school that is not in his reservation, a "white" school. Through this decision he is seen as deserting his culture and is shunned by his friends and other community members. This story is a great one for young adults to get a better perspective of the Native American culture in a contemporary realistic fiction novel.

This book was reviewed by School Library Journal, an excerpt of the review follows:

Grade 5-9- There is a surprising amount of humor in this tender novel. It is one of the best portrayals around of kids whose heritage is mixed but still very important in their lives. As feelings about the public funding of Indian Camp heat up, the emotions and values of the characters remain crystal clear and completely in focus. It's Rain's story and she cannot be reduced to simple labels. A wonderful novel of a present-day teen and her "patchwork tribe."-Carol A. Edwards, Sonoma County Library, Santa Rosa, CA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Citation:

Smith, C. L. (2001). Rain is not my indian name. New York, NY: HarperCollins Children's Books.