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American Girl: Kaya #2
Kaya's Escape
In the fall of 1764, after Kaya and her sister are kidnapped from their Nez Percâe village by enemy horse raiders, she tries to find a way to escape back home.
Library Binding
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews
May 1, 2022
Out of all of the Kaya books I do believe this one is the most dramatic. It also involves the most dire life or death situation. Why? Because it is in this tale that Kaya and her blind sister Speaking Rain get kidnapped by another tribe along with their horses. And then she has to plan her escape so she can get back to her own people. And since I am writing this review after reading all of the Kaya books (including the mystery) I can say it is indeed the most dramatic one.
The thing that surprised me the most in here I think was the fact the tribes had sign language. I never knew that. But I suppose it had developed because there were such a large number of tribes with their own language?
Like in the earlier book, Kaya makes some bad choices. But you learn from mistakes. In the ling one she will get wiser. But she does face some very difficult choices in here. What should she do? And if she does successfully escape, can she get back home. The weather is also a big part of this story!
Great story! But I also think it is the most gloomy one as well due to the subject matter.
The thing that surprised me the most in here I think was the fact the tribes had sign language. I never knew that. But I suppose it had developed because there were such a large number of tribes with their own language?
Like in the earlier book, Kaya makes some bad choices. But you learn from mistakes. In the ling one she will get wiser. But she does face some very difficult choices in here. What should she do? And if she does successfully escape, can she get back home. The weather is also a big part of this story!
Great story! But I also think it is the most gloomy one as well due to the subject matter.
July 29, 2024
this one’s got the drama, survival story, descriptions of foraging which is all I ever wanna read…favorite so far??
August 8, 2026
Reading for the first time as an adult, my first reaction is WHOA where is this series going, because this has serious "Saves the Day" energy.
Although, come to think of it, Meet Kaya has some "Learns a Lesson" vibes. At least, until you get to the beginning of this book and find that, well, maybe she hasn't yet.
I don't mean to be cranky that American Girl decided to ease away from their established patterns. There are good reasons for it - expanding beyond girls who celebrate Christmas is great - but I have always enjoyed how each series employs similar beats as a way of showing how girlhood, and people in general, stay the same despite the many changes each time period brings. So that's always something I'm looking for.
One way in which this one does feel like a "Learns a Lesson" story is that it expands Kaya's world, showing a little of nearby tribes - both enemies and allies - as well as giving us a sense of how broadly Kaya's family travels over the course of a year or so. She's at least somewhat familiar with a pretty large area, and she's well versed in herb lore and navigating by the stars.
The set-up that gets us there is... well you know it's going to happen if you read the cover of the book, so perhaps it's unfair to call it obvious. So of course Kaya is taken by raiders, along with Speaking Rain and (the raiders' main goal) a lot of horses, including Steps High.
(Tangent: I keep trying to type Singing Rain, presumably my brain conflating Speaking Rain and Singing Bird? Maybe we could have come up with a more distinct name, hmmm Janet?)
Once we get moving, this book (not unlike Meet Kirsten) is a lean, mean, plot-moving machine: roughly 10 pages of set-up, 10 pages of travel with the raiders, 20 pages of captivity at the Buffalo People's camp, 20 pages of escaping. (I noticed this because I was inclined to complain that it took foreeeeever to get to the camp and get the story going, but it's literally 8 pages from the raid to the camp. So it's just me getting bored by landscape-and-travel passages, per usual. Lord of the Rings took me a lot of peer pressure/encouragement, you guys.)
It's notable that the raiders and their people are not made out to be Bad Guys in any absolute sense, though obviously we don't like the, you know, raiding. Kaya describes a past raiding party in which her father and the other men reclaimed some horses - which suggests to me that they might sometimes be the instigators. Curious to see if that ever comes up.
All of the sign language is a really cool element - it makes sense as a way to trade more broadly in a time that has lots of spoken languages in a region. But I couldn't help wondering if Kaya's captors would also know that sign language, and if so, doesn't that make it easier for someone to "overhear" their early conversations? (As that doesn't happen, maybe I'm overthinking; also there is just no room in this book for anything else!)
The fight Kaya and Two Hawks have over gender roles is... honestly, it just makes me tired. Yes, fine, this boy is acting out because he's been forced to do women's work as a captive and he's over it. But also, there are only two of you alone in the wilderness and winter is literally coming: get over yourself already. Up to that point, it isn't clear from the first two books to what degree Kaya's culture is patriarchal - while there clearly are gender roles, there hadn't yet been any suggestion that one is more privileged. This comes a bit out of the blue and it's not especially welcome.
In the end, it becomes clear that this story needs to happen early in the series because it seeds plot points for later stories. Kaya now has vowed to help get Speaking Rain home, and presumably (in the tradition of Felicity and Penny), we haven't seen the last of Steps High. After all, you don't sell an expensive toy horse if it disappears forever early in the second book...
More Kaya babble
Meet Kaya | Kaya’s Escape | Kaya’s Hero | Kaya and Lone Dog | Kaya Shows the Way | Changes for Kaya
Kaya and the River Girl | Kaya’s Short Story Collection
The Silent Stranger | The Ghost Wind Stallion
The Roar of the Falls
Although, come to think of it, Meet Kaya has some "Learns a Lesson" vibes. At least, until you get to the beginning of this book and find that, well, maybe she hasn't yet.
I don't mean to be cranky that American Girl decided to ease away from their established patterns. There are good reasons for it - expanding beyond girls who celebrate Christmas is great - but I have always enjoyed how each series employs similar beats as a way of showing how girlhood, and people in general, stay the same despite the many changes each time period brings. So that's always something I'm looking for.
One way in which this one does feel like a "Learns a Lesson" story is that it expands Kaya's world, showing a little of nearby tribes - both enemies and allies - as well as giving us a sense of how broadly Kaya's family travels over the course of a year or so. She's at least somewhat familiar with a pretty large area, and she's well versed in herb lore and navigating by the stars.
The set-up that gets us there is... well you know it's going to happen if you read the cover of the book, so perhaps it's unfair to call it obvious. So of course Kaya is taken by raiders, along with Speaking Rain and (the raiders' main goal) a lot of horses, including Steps High.
(Tangent: I keep trying to type Singing Rain, presumably my brain conflating Speaking Rain and Singing Bird? Maybe we could have come up with a more distinct name, hmmm Janet?)
Once we get moving, this book (not unlike Meet Kirsten) is a lean, mean, plot-moving machine: roughly 10 pages of set-up, 10 pages of travel with the raiders, 20 pages of captivity at the Buffalo People's camp, 20 pages of escaping. (I noticed this because I was inclined to complain that it took foreeeeever to get to the camp and get the story going, but it's literally 8 pages from the raid to the camp. So it's just me getting bored by landscape-and-travel passages, per usual. Lord of the Rings took me a lot of peer pressure/encouragement, you guys.)
It's notable that the raiders and their people are not made out to be Bad Guys in any absolute sense, though obviously we don't like the, you know, raiding. Kaya describes a past raiding party in which her father and the other men reclaimed some horses - which suggests to me that they might sometimes be the instigators. Curious to see if that ever comes up.
All of the sign language is a really cool element - it makes sense as a way to trade more broadly in a time that has lots of spoken languages in a region. But I couldn't help wondering if Kaya's captors would also know that sign language, and if so, doesn't that make it easier for someone to "overhear" their early conversations? (As that doesn't happen, maybe I'm overthinking; also there is just no room in this book for anything else!)
The fight Kaya and Two Hawks have over gender roles is... honestly, it just makes me tired. Yes, fine, this boy is acting out because he's been forced to do women's work as a captive and he's over it. But also, there are only two of you alone in the wilderness and winter is literally coming: get over yourself already. Up to that point, it isn't clear from the first two books to what degree Kaya's culture is patriarchal - while there clearly are gender roles, there hadn't yet been any suggestion that one is more privileged. This comes a bit out of the blue and it's not especially welcome.
In the end, it becomes clear that this story needs to happen early in the series because it seeds plot points for later stories. Kaya now has vowed to help get Speaking Rain home, and presumably (in the tradition of Felicity and Penny), we haven't seen the last of Steps High. After all, you don't sell an expensive toy horse if it disappears forever early in the second book...
More Kaya babble
Meet Kaya | Kaya’s Escape | Kaya’s Hero | Kaya and Lone Dog | Kaya Shows the Way | Changes for Kaya
Kaya and the River Girl | Kaya’s Short Story Collection
The Silent Stranger | The Ghost Wind Stallion
The Roar of the Falls
February 4, 2025
Oh my word. Kaya. Kaya. You are the worst. Again, you made zero good decisions here, and several actively bad ones.
May 8, 2021
I promise I am trying to be cognizant of the fact that these were written for children. But I have a major issue with a white writer whose job is supposed to be introducing us to the culture and lifestyle of these girls in their historical context jumping to a kidnapping plot in book 2. I feel there are SO MANY more important aspects of Nez Perce culture that could have been explored in this novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2026
I have conflicted feelings about this book. Yes the action & survival elements were fun in its own way, if a bit tense & unexpected for an AG book. I'm not sure how I feel about the intertribal violence / slavery aspect - it seems to perpetuate some negative stereotypes.
My main complaint is how the author treats Speaking Rain's blindness in this book. First, Kaya interprets the invaders' reactions as negative/disappointed towards Speaking Rain cuz she's blind (and therefore less useful and "broken"). I was expecting Kaya to say something like "being able to see wasn't everything" or "she had so many other skills" or something protective and positive, but she didn't.
Second, Kaya just abandons her blind sister in an enemy camp cuz "she can't keep up"?! I feel like she's more capable than the author gives her credit for (after all its Kaya who keeps landing then into scrapes). Between this and Speaking Rain almost drowning in the last book, it perpetuates the negative stereotypes that disabled people are a burden who can't take care of themselves.
Also apparently she doesn't come back til book 5? Leaving her kidnapped seems a mighty convenient way to write out a disabled character. I know it was the 2000s but still, it was a wasted opportunity to show an empowered disabled person living a normal life.
My main complaint is how the author treats Speaking Rain's blindness in this book. First, Kaya interprets the invaders' reactions as negative/disappointed towards Speaking Rain cuz she's blind (and therefore less useful and "broken"). I was expecting Kaya to say something like "being able to see wasn't everything" or "she had so many other skills" or something protective and positive, but she didn't.
Second, Kaya just abandons her blind sister in an enemy camp cuz "she can't keep up"?! I feel like she's more capable than the author gives her credit for (after all its Kaya who keeps landing then into scrapes). Between this and Speaking Rain almost drowning in the last book, it perpetuates the negative stereotypes that disabled people are a burden who can't take care of themselves.
Also apparently she doesn't come back til book 5? Leaving her kidnapped seems a mighty convenient way to write out a disabled character. I know it was the 2000s but still, it was a wasted opportunity to show an empowered disabled person living a normal life.
November 3, 2025
This was action packed!
Read
May 12, 2023The way Kaya is completely obsessed with her horse to the point where she jeopardizes the safety of her (blind, might I add) little sister is quite annoying. Even after they are captured, Kaya obsessively worries about Steps High. Of course, this is the point of the book/series, as Kaya must learn to "think of others before herself," but as an adult reader I'm reading it thinking "Why???"
That's just a little aside. I like how there is an overarching storyline throughout the series of Kaya trying to lose her nickname, and now, it seems, getting back her sister and horse. So far she's 0 for 2. 😂
I know if I was younger reading this book, I would have loved it. It's exciting and suspenseful.
Book 9/264 (3.4% of the way done)
I am currently in the process of reading all 260-ish American Girl fiction books in chronological order according to the years in which they take place. It's a project I decided to start just for fun, since I have many of the books already in my own personal collection. It will probably take me several years, but I'm hoping to leave a review for each book. Follow along if you're interested! :)
That's just a little aside. I like how there is an overarching storyline throughout the series of Kaya trying to lose her nickname, and now, it seems, getting back her sister and horse. So far she's 0 for 2. 😂
I know if I was younger reading this book, I would have loved it. It's exciting and suspenseful.
Book 9/264 (3.4% of the way done)
I am currently in the process of reading all 260-ish American Girl fiction books in chronological order according to the years in which they take place. It's a project I decided to start just for fun, since I have many of the books already in my own personal collection. It will probably take me several years, but I'm hoping to leave a review for each book. Follow along if you're interested! :)
November 21, 2021
In this book Kaya still has her problem about thinking about herself before others which gets her and her sister in danger. This book was a little more intense than the other one. In this one Kaya loses a couple of very important things that she is going to have to figure out how to get back. The boy that Kaya meets seems pretty nice when you first meet him but he also has to learn a lesson. This boy has to not think about his pride and should be helping Kaya with stuff but instead he has a stuck up attitude and decides he doesn't want to do "Woman work" which doesn't get him anywhere. And even though they need to get home they are tired and need to rest but he wants to keep moving which puts both him and Kaya in a bad state. At the end of this book they have a stroke of luck when Kaya finds her dad.
When we were reading this book I was fascinated at how life like some of the characteristics were because some people actually are stuck up about some things and they have to learn to think of others. These books are really good so far and I want to continue reading them.
When we were reading this book I was fascinated at how life like some of the characteristics were because some people actually are stuck up about some things and they have to learn to think of others. These books are really good so far and I want to continue reading them.
November 13, 2024
It feels a bit frustrating that the lesson Kaya learned in the last book just... doesn't matter, here. Because she kind of makes the same mistake again, and it ends up costing her and her sister dearly.
I also found the sudden Gender Roles conversation with Two Hawks to be really dull and tiring.
The introduction of sign language into this book really fascinated me, and I dearly wished that we had some information about it in the peak into the past section!
I also found the sudden Gender Roles conversation with Two Hawks to be really dull and tiring.
The introduction of sign language into this book really fascinated me, and I dearly wished that we had some information about it in the peak into the past section!
December 2, 2020
Another struggle with Eve. We might be abandoning the American Girl Challenge. Literally painful for me to read this to Eve. Between the writing just not lending well to be read aloud and Eve interrupting every other sentence to ask what is going on, it is painful.
This is half because Eve may not be old enough for the books and half just bad books.
I don't know if I want to continue.
This is half because Eve may not be old enough for the books and half just bad books.
I don't know if I want to continue.
November 5, 2022
CWs:
Now I remember why I couldn’t finish this book as a kid—Kaya’s enslavement made me so anxious!
I’m really blown away by this book, the stakes were so much higher than any other American Girl book I’ve read. It feels like its own novel.
I’m worried about
Now I remember why I couldn’t finish this book as a kid—Kaya’s enslavement made me so anxious!
I’m really blown away by this book, the stakes were so much higher than any other American Girl book I’ve read. It feels like its own novel.
I’m worried about
February 19, 2014
Ok, this is actually a pretty great adventure story, and I like the new characters but come on, Kaya. Really?! How are you SO BAD at following instructions and keeping your sister safe? And Speaking Rain, it's about time you find someone new to buddy along with, for your own sake.
March 26, 2023
A rival tribe in this second novel captures Kaya and Speaking Rain. Speaking Rain is blind, and Kaya feels guilty for leading her wrong. Kaya meets Two Hawks, another slave of the tribe, and the two decide to escape. Speaking Rain makes Kaya go without her because she is blind and can't help with the escape. This book was beautiful as well. I really enjoyed the story and characters. I'm so sad about what happened I will probably finish the next two until Speaking Rain comes back. I want to know what happens to her.
Read
July 14, 2025so you’re telling me that in her second book, Samantha did a speech and in Kaya’s second book, Kaya gets kidnapped and forced into servitude, loses her sister and her horse, and is stranded in the woods in winter and her companion is severely injured
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2026
#4 in the Kaya main series in my opinion. I have a LOT to say about this book. While I rated most of Kirsten's books four stars because they were sweet and enjoyable (while not being life-changing in any way), and I rated Josefina's books four stars because they were historically accurate and emotionally complex while also being somewhat slow as a reading experience, I'm rating Kaya's books (so far) four stars because I have a lot of mixed and complex feelings about them, some of which are five stars and some of which are two or three.
There were some aspects of the plot that irritated me while also seeming realistic (thus my mixed rating). First of all, I was initially extremely annoyed at Kaya for putting Speaking Rain in danger rather than doing what she was told and running off to the woods. Nine years old is old enough to know that raiders entering your camp is dangerous to you and your blind sister. So initially I was like, wow, Kaya, your kidnapping is literally your own fault, I don't feel sorry for you.
But then I thought about the situation more and determined that I was being unfair to Kaya. First of all, she's nine; it might not occur to her the harm that raiders could do to her as a nine-year-old girl, or she might not be thinking about that in the moment. Second, the books have already established that Kaya can be impulsive, which is again normal for nine-year-olds. Third, she LOVES Steps High SO MUCH. I remembered myself as a nine-year-old and how much I loved my American Girl dolls, which are definitely less sentient than a horse is. I remember one day when I brought one of my dolls to school and we had a fire drill and how I went to grab my backpack with my doll in it before evacuating because if it was a real fire, I didn't want her to get burned up.
I also remember when I was nine, my house got burglarized, and when my brother and I got home with our nanny, she noticed things were out of place and that the house looked like it had been broken into. She forbade my brother and I to go to our bedrooms to check on our possessions in case the intruder was still in the house. I ignored her and went to get my dolls anyway, because in my nine-year-old mind, I was worried the intruder might steal my dolls (and I wanted to reassure myself that they hadn't ALREADY been stolen). At the time, I wasn't cognizant of the danger to MYSELF if the intruder was still in the house (perhaps even hiding in my bedroom); all I was thinking of was the dolls.
All of which to say...it makes sense for Kaya not to be aware of the risk she's putting herself and Speaking Rain in to protect Steps High, and it makes sense that even if she did know, that wouldn't be the thought at the forefront of her mind in the moment when her most beloved horse is at risk. It also makes sense that even if Kaya DID know that there is some degree of risk, she might have the kind of magical thinking I had as a child that I couldn't REALLY end up in serious trouble because I was just a kid and the adults around me would protect me. And it makes sense that even if Kaya knew she might get hurt while protecting her horse that she still might choose to take that risk anyway, given how important Steps High is to her. It's obviously not a great decision (neither was my decision to go get my dolls when an intruder might have been hiding in my house), but it's understandable for a nine-year-old.
On one hand, I like that Kaya's character arc seems to be learning to think of others before herself. But on the other hand, I don't think most of her "failures" were about not thinking of others. I think her mistakes are more about impulsivity or a lack of capacity to think through the consequences of her actions, rather than being selfish or uncaring. Her going to check on Steps High wasn't selfish; she wanted to protect her horse, as I think most people would for a beloved animal. Similarly, her decision to race in the first book wasn't about her not caring if her little brothers got hurt; it was simply not initially apprehending the risk to them (she thought she would only be gone for a short time) and then not thinking of them until later. Once she apprehended the risk, she immediately tried to make things right.
Later in this book where Kaya chooses to rescue Two Hawks from the cougar rather than "being selfish," I don't think that's actually a moment of character growth, because I don't think it's established in the first book that Kaya wouldn't previously have rescued someone being attacked; I think it's in fact the opposite (she rescues Speaking Rain from drowning without a second thought). Kaya does want to rescue people when she apprehends danger; just sometimes she doesn't apprehend danger. The issue is judgment and foreseeing consequences and perhaps impulsivity, not a lack of care or concern for others.
Also, I think there would have been good reasons (other than selfishness) to not get into a fight with a cougar. I think a completely unselfish person might make a judgment call that they are unlikely to be successful at winning that fight and choose not to intervene. I'm not sure if Kaya was being "brave" or "selfless" or if she was more just being foolish and nine years old by not apprehending the risk to herself (and potentially Two Hawks as well) if attacking the cougar only made it more angry.
But in general, I'm less wowed by books that show protagonists fighting nature (like the water with the strong current in the last book) or animals (like the cougar in this one), because whether a protagonist wins that fight depends much more on factors outside the protagonist's control. My reading tastes much prefer bravery being shown in a situation like Addy thinking quickly and pretending to be a slave boy at the Confederate camp in her first book or Caroline thinking quickly to sink the skiff in her fourth book.
I get that Kaya is smart and quick thinking and I like those qualities, but they don't hit me as hard in an emotional way as Addy or Caroline's bravery does. I don't find it endearing. Maybe it's because her need to be brave is often due to nature/animals/a situation of her own making (e.g. Kirsten being "brave" in the situation with the bear in her fifth book). Maybe it's also because her being brave doesn't seem to have a principled "Greater Good" that she's fighting for. She is episodically brave when circumstances call her to be, but she isn't objectively analyzing a situation, asking what she's called to do, and then doing it, the way that Samantha helps Nellie, Addy helps her family and community, Caroline helps her dad and the war effort, and Kit helps her family and poor people at the soup kitchen.
Kaya's bravery feels more to me like Samantha figuring out how to get back to Piney Point from Teardrop Island in the storm in her fifth book, or Kirsten figuring out what to do about the bear in her fifth book, and those situations just didn't hit me as hard. That could be just my own personal preference and dislike of "man vs. nature" type stories though. I did find it impressive and interesting that Kaya was able to survive in the wilderness for so long and make her way home, but that seems more of a credit to what her community would have taught her re fishing, making a fire, making a lean to, putting moss in her moccasins to keep her feet warm, etc. But it was also cool to see how well indigenous people had learned how to live in their environment as it was, rather than needing to change their environment to adapt to them as later settlers did.
I was surprised that my experience reading this book didn't feel at all similar to my experience of reading Addy's first book about her own escape from slavery. There are a lot of similarities between the books; Addy and Kaya both have to survive during their escape based mostly on their own wits and skills, Addy is forced to leave her sister Esther behind while Kaya is forced to leave Speaking Rain behind for similar reasons; both escapes have very high stakes where very violent things could happen to them if they were found.
But for whatever reason, Kaya's escape felt lower stakes and less emotionally engaging. When Addy escaped, I thought of all the real life children who had to go through what she went through, and my heart ached for Addy and all the real children like her. Kaya's experience just felt less real to me in that way, even though I know real indigenous children got kidnapped by other tribes. It could be because the kidnapping doesn't seem to have any racial/cultural/power dimensions to it. Kaya and Speaking Rain weren't being kidnapped because the raiding tribe thought they were ethnically inferior and deserved enslavement. The book depicts them as being kidnapped basically just because they were there.
The book actually does a really poor job explaining why indigenous children would be kidnapped by other tribes. Race-based chattel slavery in the US has an ideology behind it and a system of economic exploitation built around it, but in this case, it doesn't seem like Kaya and Speaking Rain were being economically exploited, since they were doing the same kinds of work all the other women did, and no one was getting paid for any of the work.
Also, I'm not sure whether it's historically accurate that indigenous tribes would have kidnapped indigenous children from other tribes to use for labour. A cursory google search tells me that indigenous people enslaved others for various reasons, including labour, ransom, to trade for horses, sexual violence, and adoption into the tribe. It seems like kidnapped children would often have been eventually been brought into the tribe and intermarried with tribal members, although there are certainly some tribes that would have kept enslaved people and their descendants as a permanent underclass. But since there is only one other enslaved person who has been kidnapped by this tribe, I'm not sure that would be the case for Kaya. The fact that none of this is explained or shown in the book (why did they kidnap Kaya? what do they intend to do with her in the future? what are the lives of enslaved people actually like long-term?) is a big gap in my opinion.
Also, this book goes hard on portraying the other tribe as EXTREME Bad Guys. I don't know how historically accurate that is. First of all, did the Nez Percé ever do raids themselves? Did they ever take slaves themselves? Kaya's mom and grandma in the previous book talk about how the men of their tribe are "fierce warriors." That sounds to me like they also might be doing some raids.
If it ISN'T common for indigenous tribes to be doing raids and this tribe is just a particularly "raid-happy" tribe, this could have been explained in the book (i.e. "this tribe does x, other tribes do y, tribes in general frown on behaviour x"), since this book leaves it unclear whether raids are a common and accepted practice, common but not accepted, accepted but not common, or neither. If kidnapping children is considered a bad thing, why does no one in the unnamed tribe (even the women) act like the men have done something wrong and that maybe they should return these children to their community?
Also I didn't love the plot line of the unnamed tribe abusing horses to the point of beating Steps High bloody. Tribes that steal horses presumably steal those horses because they want to either use the horses or sell the horses. Abusing the horses wouldn't further either of those goals. My understanding of indigenous cultures is that generally they would treat animals with a lot of respect and wouldn't want to be "wasteful" by harming or killing an animal without a specific purpose (like for food). If this specific tribe is an exception, that's fine, but I think that needs more exposition in the text to explain why, rather than just creating a tribe that is Uniformly Evil for unknown reasons.
Also in these books, the stakes for Kaya are REALLY high (e.g. she doesn't listen to her mom and ends up enslaved), and I don't know if I like that given that most of the American Girls get to make dumb decisions (like Felicity stealing a horse) with basically zero consequences. On the one hand, it's kind of accurate to the time period that dangers were all around...but there were also dangers all around for, say, Kirsten and Josefina, and their books don't have nearly this amount of drama or stakes.
The Kaya books probably would have felt more evenhanded to me if they were more like the Josefina books describing her day-to-day life and interpersonal (or intrapersonal) conflicts. Were most indigenous children in 1764 really dealing with the amount of drama and trauma Kaya deals with, like having her sister almost drown, being kidnapped and enslaved, etc? In contrast, Josefina's books were very calm and kind of boring. Kaya's are not at all boring, but full of a lot of drama that I'm not sure how representative it is. Intertribal violence obviously happened, but I'm not sure if the scale of the violence depicted here is actually representative, or if it's perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes about indigenous people as warlike and "savage."
Some other miscellaneous thoughts: I understand native sign language was a thing and that Kaya and Two Hawks would have spoken it, but why wouldn't the tribe that kidnapped her also have spoken it and communicated in sign language with her? The sign language syntax and complexity also doesn't seem very accurate, but I understand the author not wanting sign language to sound "primitive" to younger readers in the way its ideas are expressed. Also, Kaya seems to speak sign language very fluently to express such complex ideas, and I'm not sure how realistic THAT part would be, especially since she's a nine-year-old girl. It makes sense to me that men who trade regularly with other tribes would speak it, but Kaya is a young child and also a girl. But for story purposes, it's fine.
Steps High being traded away is sad, but I'm sure Kaya will see her again, just as Felicity sees Penny again; I know how these books go!
It's a bit deus ex machina that her dad shows up, but I guess the magpie feather makes it make a bit more sense. It didn't thrill me, but it was fine.
I was also surprised her dad didn't seem more concerned about Speaking Rain, and I wondered if part of that might be due to her not being his biological daughter, or if he would have reacted the same way if Speaking Rain had somehow returned without Kaya. Or if it was one of the twins, would her family have been more angry at her for leaving the twin behind?
So clearly this book gave me a lot to think about an unpack. I liked reading it well enough, but obviously I had discomforts and concerns with some of the gaps and ways that Kaya's enslavement is portrayed. So a mixed four stars from me.
There were some aspects of the plot that irritated me while also seeming realistic (thus my mixed rating). First of all, I was initially extremely annoyed at Kaya for putting Speaking Rain in danger rather than doing what she was told and running off to the woods. Nine years old is old enough to know that raiders entering your camp is dangerous to you and your blind sister. So initially I was like, wow, Kaya, your kidnapping is literally your own fault, I don't feel sorry for you.
But then I thought about the situation more and determined that I was being unfair to Kaya. First of all, she's nine; it might not occur to her the harm that raiders could do to her as a nine-year-old girl, or she might not be thinking about that in the moment. Second, the books have already established that Kaya can be impulsive, which is again normal for nine-year-olds. Third, she LOVES Steps High SO MUCH. I remembered myself as a nine-year-old and how much I loved my American Girl dolls, which are definitely less sentient than a horse is. I remember one day when I brought one of my dolls to school and we had a fire drill and how I went to grab my backpack with my doll in it before evacuating because if it was a real fire, I didn't want her to get burned up.
I also remember when I was nine, my house got burglarized, and when my brother and I got home with our nanny, she noticed things were out of place and that the house looked like it had been broken into. She forbade my brother and I to go to our bedrooms to check on our possessions in case the intruder was still in the house. I ignored her and went to get my dolls anyway, because in my nine-year-old mind, I was worried the intruder might steal my dolls (and I wanted to reassure myself that they hadn't ALREADY been stolen). At the time, I wasn't cognizant of the danger to MYSELF if the intruder was still in the house (perhaps even hiding in my bedroom); all I was thinking of was the dolls.
All of which to say...it makes sense for Kaya not to be aware of the risk she's putting herself and Speaking Rain in to protect Steps High, and it makes sense that even if she did know, that wouldn't be the thought at the forefront of her mind in the moment when her most beloved horse is at risk. It also makes sense that even if Kaya DID know that there is some degree of risk, she might have the kind of magical thinking I had as a child that I couldn't REALLY end up in serious trouble because I was just a kid and the adults around me would protect me. And it makes sense that even if Kaya knew she might get hurt while protecting her horse that she still might choose to take that risk anyway, given how important Steps High is to her. It's obviously not a great decision (neither was my decision to go get my dolls when an intruder might have been hiding in my house), but it's understandable for a nine-year-old.
On one hand, I like that Kaya's character arc seems to be learning to think of others before herself. But on the other hand, I don't think most of her "failures" were about not thinking of others. I think her mistakes are more about impulsivity or a lack of capacity to think through the consequences of her actions, rather than being selfish or uncaring. Her going to check on Steps High wasn't selfish; she wanted to protect her horse, as I think most people would for a beloved animal. Similarly, her decision to race in the first book wasn't about her not caring if her little brothers got hurt; it was simply not initially apprehending the risk to them (she thought she would only be gone for a short time) and then not thinking of them until later. Once she apprehended the risk, she immediately tried to make things right.
Later in this book where Kaya chooses to rescue Two Hawks from the cougar rather than "being selfish," I don't think that's actually a moment of character growth, because I don't think it's established in the first book that Kaya wouldn't previously have rescued someone being attacked; I think it's in fact the opposite (she rescues Speaking Rain from drowning without a second thought). Kaya does want to rescue people when she apprehends danger; just sometimes she doesn't apprehend danger. The issue is judgment and foreseeing consequences and perhaps impulsivity, not a lack of care or concern for others.
Also, I think there would have been good reasons (other than selfishness) to not get into a fight with a cougar. I think a completely unselfish person might make a judgment call that they are unlikely to be successful at winning that fight and choose not to intervene. I'm not sure if Kaya was being "brave" or "selfless" or if she was more just being foolish and nine years old by not apprehending the risk to herself (and potentially Two Hawks as well) if attacking the cougar only made it more angry.
But in general, I'm less wowed by books that show protagonists fighting nature (like the water with the strong current in the last book) or animals (like the cougar in this one), because whether a protagonist wins that fight depends much more on factors outside the protagonist's control. My reading tastes much prefer bravery being shown in a situation like Addy thinking quickly and pretending to be a slave boy at the Confederate camp in her first book or Caroline thinking quickly to sink the skiff in her fourth book.
I get that Kaya is smart and quick thinking and I like those qualities, but they don't hit me as hard in an emotional way as Addy or Caroline's bravery does. I don't find it endearing. Maybe it's because her need to be brave is often due to nature/animals/a situation of her own making (e.g. Kirsten being "brave" in the situation with the bear in her fifth book). Maybe it's also because her being brave doesn't seem to have a principled "Greater Good" that she's fighting for. She is episodically brave when circumstances call her to be, but she isn't objectively analyzing a situation, asking what she's called to do, and then doing it, the way that Samantha helps Nellie, Addy helps her family and community, Caroline helps her dad and the war effort, and Kit helps her family and poor people at the soup kitchen.
Kaya's bravery feels more to me like Samantha figuring out how to get back to Piney Point from Teardrop Island in the storm in her fifth book, or Kirsten figuring out what to do about the bear in her fifth book, and those situations just didn't hit me as hard. That could be just my own personal preference and dislike of "man vs. nature" type stories though. I did find it impressive and interesting that Kaya was able to survive in the wilderness for so long and make her way home, but that seems more of a credit to what her community would have taught her re fishing, making a fire, making a lean to, putting moss in her moccasins to keep her feet warm, etc. But it was also cool to see how well indigenous people had learned how to live in their environment as it was, rather than needing to change their environment to adapt to them as later settlers did.
I was surprised that my experience reading this book didn't feel at all similar to my experience of reading Addy's first book about her own escape from slavery. There are a lot of similarities between the books; Addy and Kaya both have to survive during their escape based mostly on their own wits and skills, Addy is forced to leave her sister Esther behind while Kaya is forced to leave Speaking Rain behind for similar reasons; both escapes have very high stakes where very violent things could happen to them if they were found.
But for whatever reason, Kaya's escape felt lower stakes and less emotionally engaging. When Addy escaped, I thought of all the real life children who had to go through what she went through, and my heart ached for Addy and all the real children like her. Kaya's experience just felt less real to me in that way, even though I know real indigenous children got kidnapped by other tribes. It could be because the kidnapping doesn't seem to have any racial/cultural/power dimensions to it. Kaya and Speaking Rain weren't being kidnapped because the raiding tribe thought they were ethnically inferior and deserved enslavement. The book depicts them as being kidnapped basically just because they were there.
The book actually does a really poor job explaining why indigenous children would be kidnapped by other tribes. Race-based chattel slavery in the US has an ideology behind it and a system of economic exploitation built around it, but in this case, it doesn't seem like Kaya and Speaking Rain were being economically exploited, since they were doing the same kinds of work all the other women did, and no one was getting paid for any of the work.
Also, I'm not sure whether it's historically accurate that indigenous tribes would have kidnapped indigenous children from other tribes to use for labour. A cursory google search tells me that indigenous people enslaved others for various reasons, including labour, ransom, to trade for horses, sexual violence, and adoption into the tribe. It seems like kidnapped children would often have been eventually been brought into the tribe and intermarried with tribal members, although there are certainly some tribes that would have kept enslaved people and their descendants as a permanent underclass. But since there is only one other enslaved person who has been kidnapped by this tribe, I'm not sure that would be the case for Kaya. The fact that none of this is explained or shown in the book (why did they kidnap Kaya? what do they intend to do with her in the future? what are the lives of enslaved people actually like long-term?) is a big gap in my opinion.
Also, this book goes hard on portraying the other tribe as EXTREME Bad Guys. I don't know how historically accurate that is. First of all, did the Nez Percé ever do raids themselves? Did they ever take slaves themselves? Kaya's mom and grandma in the previous book talk about how the men of their tribe are "fierce warriors." That sounds to me like they also might be doing some raids.
If it ISN'T common for indigenous tribes to be doing raids and this tribe is just a particularly "raid-happy" tribe, this could have been explained in the book (i.e. "this tribe does x, other tribes do y, tribes in general frown on behaviour x"), since this book leaves it unclear whether raids are a common and accepted practice, common but not accepted, accepted but not common, or neither. If kidnapping children is considered a bad thing, why does no one in the unnamed tribe (even the women) act like the men have done something wrong and that maybe they should return these children to their community?
Also I didn't love the plot line of the unnamed tribe abusing horses to the point of beating Steps High bloody. Tribes that steal horses presumably steal those horses because they want to either use the horses or sell the horses. Abusing the horses wouldn't further either of those goals. My understanding of indigenous cultures is that generally they would treat animals with a lot of respect and wouldn't want to be "wasteful" by harming or killing an animal without a specific purpose (like for food). If this specific tribe is an exception, that's fine, but I think that needs more exposition in the text to explain why, rather than just creating a tribe that is Uniformly Evil for unknown reasons.
Also in these books, the stakes for Kaya are REALLY high (e.g. she doesn't listen to her mom and ends up enslaved), and I don't know if I like that given that most of the American Girls get to make dumb decisions (like Felicity stealing a horse) with basically zero consequences. On the one hand, it's kind of accurate to the time period that dangers were all around...but there were also dangers all around for, say, Kirsten and Josefina, and their books don't have nearly this amount of drama or stakes.
The Kaya books probably would have felt more evenhanded to me if they were more like the Josefina books describing her day-to-day life and interpersonal (or intrapersonal) conflicts. Were most indigenous children in 1764 really dealing with the amount of drama and trauma Kaya deals with, like having her sister almost drown, being kidnapped and enslaved, etc? In contrast, Josefina's books were very calm and kind of boring. Kaya's are not at all boring, but full of a lot of drama that I'm not sure how representative it is. Intertribal violence obviously happened, but I'm not sure if the scale of the violence depicted here is actually representative, or if it's perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes about indigenous people as warlike and "savage."
Some other miscellaneous thoughts: I understand native sign language was a thing and that Kaya and Two Hawks would have spoken it, but why wouldn't the tribe that kidnapped her also have spoken it and communicated in sign language with her? The sign language syntax and complexity also doesn't seem very accurate, but I understand the author not wanting sign language to sound "primitive" to younger readers in the way its ideas are expressed. Also, Kaya seems to speak sign language very fluently to express such complex ideas, and I'm not sure how realistic THAT part would be, especially since she's a nine-year-old girl. It makes sense to me that men who trade regularly with other tribes would speak it, but Kaya is a young child and also a girl. But for story purposes, it's fine.
Steps High being traded away is sad, but I'm sure Kaya will see her again, just as Felicity sees Penny again; I know how these books go!
It's a bit deus ex machina that her dad shows up, but I guess the magpie feather makes it make a bit more sense. It didn't thrill me, but it was fine.
I was also surprised her dad didn't seem more concerned about Speaking Rain, and I wondered if part of that might be due to her not being his biological daughter, or if he would have reacted the same way if Speaking Rain had somehow returned without Kaya. Or if it was one of the twins, would her family have been more angry at her for leaving the twin behind?
So clearly this book gave me a lot to think about an unpack. I liked reading it well enough, but obviously I had discomforts and concerns with some of the gaps and ways that Kaya's enslavement is portrayed. So a mixed four stars from me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2017
I definitely like this one better than the first one. It still has a rather abrupt ending, but otherwise, the plot arc is better. Contrary to my memory, I was expecting At the same time, I kind of wish these were one book instead of six. They're more satisfying if you think of them as one book. But I understand that they are shorter because of the age they were written for. I remember taking a couple of these with me when I had to go grocery shopping with my mom and finishing them both as I walked around with her. ^.^
February 8, 2013
I liked this better than the first one. It seemed to have a better story arc and more action, and so Isobel followed it better than Meet Kaya. Plus I just love that this story (and many of the American Girl books) stress that it's important to be smart, capable, and kind. And think about others more than yourself. The messages may not be subtle, but they are good, sturdy life lessons for girls.
July 26, 2025
Rated 3.5 stars on more nuanced platforms.
Jumping straight into Book Two from Book One that introduced the reader to Kaya and her family, I had a question answered very quickly: these books lead one into the next. And so I found myself immediately plunged into the next events in Kaya's young life, with the women picking the ripened mulberries as the men left on their hunting trip.
What I liked about Kaya's Escape!:
These books may be written for children, but that doesn't mean that they can't also educate adults. Once again, there were words (with pronunciations) in the Nez Perce language; some historical and cultural facts; and most interesting was my discovery that the various tribes could communicate using sign language when they didn't share a common tongue!
What I didn't care for:
Again, the subject matter felt a bit heavy for children. The description fully reveals that Kaya and Speaking Rain are captured by an enemy during a raid on their camp made vulnerable by all the men being away, and are carried off the enslavement by their captors. For books indicated for children as young as age seven... I don't know. Maybe by age ten or so that might be more appropriate subject matter.
What left me conflicted:
The aforementioned kidnapping certainly made this a more intense read -- even for an adult reader! That was unexpected, although I remain ambivalent about the turn of events. It sure feels as if Kaya can't just make a low-stakes poor decision. I mean, she leaves her baby brothers with her blind adopted sister, when they might have gotten lost, eaten by wildlife, or drowned in the river. She hesitates during the flight to the woods for safety, out of concern for her beloved horse (which came across as believable and understandable to me), and suddenly she is being enslaved with her blind sister? I get that these were life-and-death times, where survival was a struggle, and I don't think we need to sugarcoat that, but it sure seems like this is being driven home with a heavier hand than I have encountered in other children's books where the same gravitas was accomplished without sparking nightmares.
As this book ends in a cliffhanger, I am going to need to press on (soon, but not immediately) and see what happens next for Kaya, but I sure hope she gets to be more of a child in the subsequent books, because at the moment, the author has been asking her to work her way through some circumstances that even a grown adult would find harrowing.
Jumping straight into Book Two from Book One that introduced the reader to Kaya and her family, I had a question answered very quickly: these books lead one into the next. And so I found myself immediately plunged into the next events in Kaya's young life, with the women picking the ripened mulberries as the men left on their hunting trip.
What I liked about Kaya's Escape!:
These books may be written for children, but that doesn't mean that they can't also educate adults. Once again, there were words (with pronunciations) in the Nez Perce language; some historical and cultural facts; and most interesting was my discovery that the various tribes could communicate using sign language when they didn't share a common tongue!
What I didn't care for:
Again, the subject matter felt a bit heavy for children. The description fully reveals that Kaya and Speaking Rain are captured by an enemy during a raid on their camp made vulnerable by all the men being away, and are carried off the enslavement by their captors. For books indicated for children as young as age seven... I don't know. Maybe by age ten or so that might be more appropriate subject matter.
What left me conflicted:
The aforementioned kidnapping certainly made this a more intense read -- even for an adult reader! That was unexpected, although I remain ambivalent about the turn of events. It sure feels as if Kaya can't just make a low-stakes poor decision. I mean, she leaves her baby brothers with her blind adopted sister, when they might have gotten lost, eaten by wildlife, or drowned in the river. She hesitates during the flight to the woods for safety, out of concern for her beloved horse (which came across as believable and understandable to me), and suddenly she is being enslaved with her blind sister? I get that these were life-and-death times, where survival was a struggle, and I don't think we need to sugarcoat that, but it sure seems like this is being driven home with a heavier hand than I have encountered in other children's books where the same gravitas was accomplished without sparking nightmares.
As this book ends in a cliffhanger, I am going to need to press on (soon, but not immediately) and see what happens next for Kaya, but I sure hope she gets to be more of a child in the subsequent books, because at the moment, the author has been asking her to work her way through some circumstances that even a grown adult would find harrowing.
July 9, 2026
Well I didn't really like this.
I think one thing that really soured is the kidnapping and slavery part, they literally say that they are slaves now. I think it's because I'm an adult. And am very aware of the evilness in the world. Of course this for kids so all the horrific things that would come to mind in this kind of scenario aren't there, they're just treated rough and made to work. The pacing is really fast so even though it seems like they're enslaved for a while they only spend a few pages there. However it just feels so hopeless and geez scary, this is the second book and already like is someone gonna die. I don't know this whole book just made me really uncomfortable.
Also the new character introduced Two Hawks has kind of a sexism arc, but it doesn't really work because of how fast paced it is. He was enslaved and forced to do women's work, and kinda takes that anger out on Kaya, refusing to help with "women's work" even thouhg they need to survive. But he kinda just is like oh you saved me I respect you now.
Also it kinda feels like Kaya's lesson of thinking of others from the last book is undone here. She gets into yet another problem because she didnt listen and wanted to save the horses. And the consequences were way more severe.
I also just don't think this is a good second book in a series. We've only had one book with Kaya and her people, and by the first few pages she's captured.
And Speaking Rain is left behind. While in the first book her disablity was protrayed respectfully. There were things she couldn't do because of her blindness, but she didn't just feel like a weakling that couldn't do anything herself. Here, she is left behind because she won't be able to keep up. She's blind, she can still run! I mean ofc someone would need to guide her but does that really slow you down that much?
And Two Hawks arc was so rushed that I couldn't accept him as the replacement to Speaking Rain as Kaya's companion.
I'm really glad these books are short becuase if this was even a 100 pages I would definetly have hated it more. I guess as a kid the thrills and danger would be exciting but here I'm just like oh my gosh this poor girl!! Someone save her!
Sigh... I hope the next book is good. Because I love Kaya and her horse Steps High.
I think one thing that really soured is the kidnapping and slavery part, they literally say that they are slaves now. I think it's because I'm an adult. And am very aware of the evilness in the world. Of course this for kids so all the horrific things that would come to mind in this kind of scenario aren't there, they're just treated rough and made to work. The pacing is really fast so even though it seems like they're enslaved for a while they only spend a few pages there. However it just feels so hopeless and geez scary, this is the second book and already like is someone gonna die. I don't know this whole book just made me really uncomfortable.
Also the new character introduced Two Hawks has kind of a sexism arc, but it doesn't really work because of how fast paced it is. He was enslaved and forced to do women's work, and kinda takes that anger out on Kaya, refusing to help with "women's work" even thouhg they need to survive. But he kinda just is like oh you saved me I respect you now.
Also it kinda feels like Kaya's lesson of thinking of others from the last book is undone here. She gets into yet another problem because she didnt listen and wanted to save the horses. And the consequences were way more severe.
I also just don't think this is a good second book in a series. We've only had one book with Kaya and her people, and by the first few pages she's captured.
And Speaking Rain is left behind. While in the first book her disablity was protrayed respectfully. There were things she couldn't do because of her blindness, but she didn't just feel like a weakling that couldn't do anything herself. Here, she is left behind because she won't be able to keep up. She's blind, she can still run! I mean ofc someone would need to guide her but does that really slow you down that much?
And Two Hawks arc was so rushed that I couldn't accept him as the replacement to Speaking Rain as Kaya's companion.
I'm really glad these books are short becuase if this was even a 100 pages I would definetly have hated it more. I guess as a kid the thrills and danger would be exciting but here I'm just like oh my gosh this poor girl!! Someone save her!
Sigh... I hope the next book is good. Because I love Kaya and her horse Steps High.
August 3, 2026
This book is pretty insane. Enemy raiders invade the camp where Kaya lives with other Native Americans of the Nez Perce tribe and steal their horses, including Kaya's beloved horse, Steps High. It's bad enough they take the horses, but they also nab Kaya and her blind adopted sister, Singing Rain. At first, my mind went to a really dark place and I thought they were taking them to be child brides. Don't get me wrong...it's still horrible why they're taken: they will be slaves with this other Native American tribe who speak another language and live further east. They go quite a long way and have to pass through a treacherous mountain range. It's a very steep trail and at one point, Kaya sees her grandmother's horse (who's a bit old and so doesn't have the most steady gait) fall to its death! I literally gasped when that happened.
When they get to their new camp, there is a boy about Kaya's age who was also kidnapped a while back. He's a bit (okay, a lot) misgonistic, but this is set in 1764...
Kaya and Speaking Rain basically are tasked to do chores around the camp. Kaya even has to sleep with her leg tied next to a woman (so she won't escape). My first thought when I read that was, How is she able to get up to go to the bathroom? Since Speaking Rain is blind, they're not worried about her running away.
Kaya talks to the boy (using sign language) and they decide to escape. Kaya wants to take Speaking Rain with her too, but Speaking Rain tells her to come back with her because she would only slow them down. She is able to help Kaya cut the tie that binds her to the other woman and she takes Kaya's place next to the woman.
Kaya and the boy manage to escape and after traveling for a while, she is reunited with her father. It was very smart how she made her mark...she made a cairn, then added a magpie feather (her nickname) as a calling card. That's how her father knew she was nearby.
I'm guessing in the following books they will get rescue Speaking Rain and hopefully Kaya will be reunited with Steps High. Before she left, the horse was taken away again.
But yeah, a lot of stress and trauma for Kaya in this book!
When they get to their new camp, there is a boy about Kaya's age who was also kidnapped a while back. He's a bit (okay, a lot) misgonistic, but this is set in 1764...
Kaya and Speaking Rain basically are tasked to do chores around the camp. Kaya even has to sleep with her leg tied next to a woman (so she won't escape). My first thought when I read that was, How is she able to get up to go to the bathroom? Since Speaking Rain is blind, they're not worried about her running away.
Kaya talks to the boy (using sign language) and they decide to escape. Kaya wants to take Speaking Rain with her too, but Speaking Rain tells her to come back with her because she would only slow them down. She is able to help Kaya cut the tie that binds her to the other woman and she takes Kaya's place next to the woman.
Kaya and the boy manage to escape and after traveling for a while, she is reunited with her father. It was very smart how she made her mark...she made a cairn, then added a magpie feather (her nickname) as a calling card. That's how her father knew she was nearby.
I'm guessing in the following books they will get rescue Speaking Rain and hopefully Kaya will be reunited with Steps High. Before she left, the horse was taken away again.
But yeah, a lot of stress and trauma for Kaya in this book!
Read
December 4, 2023American Girl books were a staple during my early reading years. Do they hold up 25 years later? Currently working through the winter/holiday stories since it's that time of year.
See my review of Felicity's Surprise as a quick introduction.
The question of Kaya's books isn't so much "Are these well written?" but "Can a white woman write about the Nimíipuu experience?" It's probably something that wouldn't happen these days. In 2023, we hire Indigenous people to tell their own stories.
But we do know that Kaya's collection was reviewed and developed concurrently with a board of experts, including members of the Nez Perce tribe. The AG wiki details the full history of Kaya's development. The board requested that Kaya's stories take place before European colonialization, and it was wise of AG to honor that request. Imagine reading these books today if Kaya's stories had taken place after first contact? Major yikes! European colonialization was the apocalypse for Indigenous people.
What is this book good for?
Kaya's books and collection have been revered but also critiqued. Is it good or bad representation? I can't answer that as a white person. Are these books a decent introduction to Indigenous, especially Nez Perce, culture for children? Maybe?
Bottomline: this book is troublesome with some moments that make you go hmmmm. Kaya and her sister are kidnapped by a neighboring "enemy" tribe, enslaved, and treated inhumanely. Even under these conditions, Kaya is resolved to do well and work hard for her captors. Ultimately, she escapes, some mystical stuff happens (another "magical Indian" trop moment?), and is found by her father. It's one of the most violent-adjacent books in the entire AG canon.
But can these books still offer empathy and life lessons? Sure. Will these books sell more dolls? Probably not.
See my review of Felicity's Surprise as a quick introduction.
The question of Kaya's books isn't so much "Are these well written?" but "Can a white woman write about the Nimíipuu experience?" It's probably something that wouldn't happen these days. In 2023, we hire Indigenous people to tell their own stories.
But we do know that Kaya's collection was reviewed and developed concurrently with a board of experts, including members of the Nez Perce tribe. The AG wiki details the full history of Kaya's development. The board requested that Kaya's stories take place before European colonialization, and it was wise of AG to honor that request. Imagine reading these books today if Kaya's stories had taken place after first contact? Major yikes! European colonialization was the apocalypse for Indigenous people.
What is this book good for?
Kaya's books and collection have been revered but also critiqued. Is it good or bad representation? I can't answer that as a white person. Are these books a decent introduction to Indigenous, especially Nez Perce, culture for children? Maybe?
Bottomline: this book is troublesome with some moments that make you go hmmmm. Kaya and her sister are kidnapped by a neighboring "enemy" tribe, enslaved, and treated inhumanely. Even under these conditions, Kaya is resolved to do well and work hard for her captors. Ultimately, she escapes, some mystical stuff happens (another "magical Indian" trop moment?), and is found by her father. It's one of the most violent-adjacent books in the entire AG canon.
But can these books still offer empathy and life lessons? Sure. Will these books sell more dolls? Probably not.
January 21, 2024
This was a jam packed book so much happened in just a few pages and it was an intense and really fun read. It took you on such a journey and leaves you needing to get more answers after you have finished it.
It was such a quiet and peaceful place and then suddenly it became dangerous and scary, Kaya and Speaking Rain got captured and my goodness was that terrifying, I was in shock that it was even a thing that happened back then, in their tribes I had no idea about it.
Kaya was so incredibly brave, smart and resourceful throughout this whole scary endeavour, she went on the journey home and didn’t know what was coming, or if her family could even find her, she was incredible. I was so sad she had to leave her sister and her horse though it broke my heart for her, but I know in future books they’ll be together again.
I honestly really enjoyed reading this book, as so much actually happened throughout it, it was such a thrilling and scary journey, with our brave Kaya. I do wish though that the fact file could have shared more about what entailed in the story regarding the actual tribes, the kidnappings, the raids, the making children into slaves, I would have liked a bit more real information to be provided as that was something I knew nothing about.
It was such a quiet and peaceful place and then suddenly it became dangerous and scary, Kaya and Speaking Rain got captured and my goodness was that terrifying, I was in shock that it was even a thing that happened back then, in their tribes I had no idea about it.
Kaya was so incredibly brave, smart and resourceful throughout this whole scary endeavour, she went on the journey home and didn’t know what was coming, or if her family could even find her, she was incredible. I was so sad she had to leave her sister and her horse though it broke my heart for her, but I know in future books they’ll be together again.
I honestly really enjoyed reading this book, as so much actually happened throughout it, it was such a thrilling and scary journey, with our brave Kaya. I do wish though that the fact file could have shared more about what entailed in the story regarding the actual tribes, the kidnappings, the raids, the making children into slaves, I would have liked a bit more real information to be provided as that was something I knew nothing about.
April 28, 2026
What a dramatic story! Kaya and her adoptive sister, who is also blind, are kidnapped from their village by enemy horse raiders. Knowing that winter is fast encroaching, Kaya decides to try to escape and make it home on foot.
There's been a running theme through book one and two that Kaya doesn't listen to instructions and puts her own wishes above the needs of others. In this book, when enemy warriors come into her village, Kaya tries to protect her horse from being stolen, despite having been told to escape to the woods with her sister. Kaya has a lot of regret and guilt for her choice.
I didn't read Kaya's stories growing up, but it's been fun to reading them as an adult with my children. They all enjoyed this book more than book one, largely because their was a lot more action and suspense. We were all worried for Kaya's safety and hoping for her safe return to her family.
One of my favorite parts about the American Girl books is the way they include the peek into the past section at the end of the book to provide some historical context for the story. This one was great as always and very informative, but I do wish it had talked a bit about the practice of different villages taking captives, since that is what the whole plot of this book was about.
There's been a running theme through book one and two that Kaya doesn't listen to instructions and puts her own wishes above the needs of others. In this book, when enemy warriors come into her village, Kaya tries to protect her horse from being stolen, despite having been told to escape to the woods with her sister. Kaya has a lot of regret and guilt for her choice.
I didn't read Kaya's stories growing up, but it's been fun to reading them as an adult with my children. They all enjoyed this book more than book one, largely because their was a lot more action and suspense. We were all worried for Kaya's safety and hoping for her safe return to her family.
One of my favorite parts about the American Girl books is the way they include the peek into the past section at the end of the book to provide some historical context for the story. This one was great as always and very informative, but I do wish it had talked a bit about the practice of different villages taking captives, since that is what the whole plot of this book was about.
November 10, 2023
As I said in my initial update after starting this book, what a surprisingly dark story to write for young girls. Not saying that as a criticism, it's actually praise! I admire AG for not shying away from these more unfortunate sides of history, as I can only assume, based on this book, that many Native Americans, even as young as 9 years old, were captured by enemy tribes and treated as slaves.
It's quite a way for Kaya to "learn her lesson", as is the usual title and story beat for the 2nd books in the original series for the historical girls. It kinda didn't hit me till the end, when Kaya is finally reunited with her father, that that was ultimately the point in this book. Kaya does learn a lesson in the first book as well, about the inappropriateness of bragging in her tribe, but it's not nearly as significant and probably life-changing as the one she learns here. On the subject of that first book, though, I will say that I kinda hate that she hasn't fully shaken off the "magpie" nickname. I really thought that her heroic endeavor at the end of her first book would make the tribe finally let go of that nickname, but I guess not.
Obviously, this entry in Kaya's series had a lot more drama than the first one, and a couple more loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of the book. Which kinda just makes me wish that this book were longer, but I guess that's the point of the series, and these overarching storylines will all be wrapped up by the 6th book. I just really hope that Speaking Rain is okay, and that Kaya gets Steps High back. Though I have kinda looked ahead and read the later book descriptions, as listed in the back of each of the books, so I know that both will return. I just wonder how, and if they'll come back unscathed or not.
I liked the introduction of Two Hawks! I'm glad Kaya has a guy friend now outside of her immediate family. His misogyny frustrated me a little, though. I can understand that he wouldn't wanna do more "women's work" after it was basically all that he did as a slave, but I just thought that Kaya was trying to delegate tasks during their escape so that they could work together and get things done faster. It felt like, to me, Two Hawks was flat out refusing to help by being so hung up about the "women's work" thing. But I know I also have to forgive it as a product of the times. Still frustrating to read now, as a modern feminist.
Onto the next one!
It's quite a way for Kaya to "learn her lesson", as is the usual title and story beat for the 2nd books in the original series for the historical girls. It kinda didn't hit me till the end, when Kaya is finally reunited with her father, that that was ultimately the point in this book. Kaya does learn a lesson in the first book as well, about the inappropriateness of bragging in her tribe, but it's not nearly as significant and probably life-changing as the one she learns here. On the subject of that first book, though, I will say that I kinda hate that she hasn't fully shaken off the "magpie" nickname. I really thought that her heroic endeavor at the end of her first book would make the tribe finally let go of that nickname, but I guess not.
Obviously, this entry in Kaya's series had a lot more drama than the first one, and a couple more loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of the book. Which kinda just makes me wish that this book were longer, but I guess that's the point of the series, and these overarching storylines will all be wrapped up by the 6th book. I just really hope that Speaking Rain is okay, and that Kaya gets Steps High back. Though I have kinda looked ahead and read the later book descriptions, as listed in the back of each of the books, so I know that both will return. I just wonder how, and if they'll come back unscathed or not.
I liked the introduction of Two Hawks! I'm glad Kaya has a guy friend now outside of her immediate family. His misogyny frustrated me a little, though. I can understand that he wouldn't wanna do more "women's work" after it was basically all that he did as a slave, but I just thought that Kaya was trying to delegate tasks during their escape so that they could work together and get things done faster. It felt like, to me, Two Hawks was flat out refusing to help by being so hung up about the "women's work" thing. But I know I also have to forgive it as a product of the times. Still frustrating to read now, as a modern feminist.
Onto the next one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 29, 2023Quite harrowing! I feel like this would be very dark if not written for a child audience. You know things are going to be generally okay because it’s an American Girl book, but as an adult (without nostalgic childhood readings), it makes you think of real situations like this.
Props to the Peek Into The Past for acknowledging the residential schools. I do not know if these books are fully accurate, and I wish they were Own Voices, but this is definitely the only children’s book I have read that educates on residential schools at all. (For clarity if you have not read the book, Kaya does not go to a residential school. The American Girl historical books give a final chapter with real information about the time period, and in this case also the Nez Perce people over time, always one of my favorite elements of the books.)
Props to the Peek Into The Past for acknowledging the residential schools. I do not know if these books are fully accurate, and I wish they were Own Voices, but this is definitely the only children’s book I have read that educates on residential schools at all. (For clarity if you have not read the book, Kaya does not go to a residential school. The American Girl historical books give a final chapter with real information about the time period, and in this case also the Nez Perce people over time, always one of my favorite elements of the books.)
May 27, 2021
Last spring/summer, I reread the Bobbsey Twins series for the umpteenth time. This spring/summer I decided to revisit the American Girls series. I read these to my niece when she was a girl, so they bring back good memories.
I love the historical facts packed into the books and in a way which makes it interesting. "Kaya's Escape!" even has a cliffhanger involving Speaking Rain. The artwork is excellent, too.
The one drawback which is the same for each book in the Kaya series. I don't like that some characters such as Speaking Rain, Brown Deer and Two Hawks, etc. have anglicized versions of their names. Why not have the native name like Kaya and a definition of the name? Her parents and grandparents go by the native name for mother, father, etc.
I love the historical facts packed into the books and in a way which makes it interesting. "Kaya's Escape!" even has a cliffhanger involving Speaking Rain. The artwork is excellent, too.
The one drawback which is the same for each book in the Kaya series. I don't like that some characters such as Speaking Rain, Brown Deer and Two Hawks, etc. have anglicized versions of their names. Why not have the native name like Kaya and a definition of the name? Her parents and grandparents go by the native name for mother, father, etc.
March 5, 2024
While the men are gone from camp, a group of raiders attacks and thinking only of her horse, Kaya and her sister Speaking Rain are taken captive. As slaves for the raiders, Kaya protects Speaking Rain while befriending a slave boy, Two Hawks. With Speaking Rain’s encouragement, Kaya and Two Hawks devise a plan to escape. Leaving behind Speaking Rain, the two must survive the trek back to Kaya’s home. Winter is coming and rangers are many, will they survive?
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Kaya, once again thinking of herself, sets her plight in motion. Clearly the nickname hasn’t gone anywhere! This addition showed Kaya’s ingenuity and bravery that I was happy to read - it’s been a long time since we’ve had an AG that would have shown such bravery and determination, much less survived this kind of ordeal!
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Kaya, once again thinking of herself, sets her plight in motion. Clearly the nickname hasn’t gone anywhere! This addition showed Kaya’s ingenuity and bravery that I was happy to read - it’s been a long time since we’ve had an AG that would have shown such bravery and determination, much less survived this kind of ordeal!
May 4, 2021
I didn't love the pacing. It was action packed but we often didn't dwell on feelings. Probably because this book dealt with some very traumatic things but that meant we never acknowledged that. For young readers, this would be especially upsetting. I really wish we could have avoided traumatic events, especially as an indigenous story. I understand that the American Girls series changed the formatting of story planning around this era but I can't help think that we remove how many skills Kaya has by removing the "lessons" titling of the second book.
December 27, 2023
It’s honestly pretty amazing to reread these books as an adult and think about how much I didn’t realize the subjects they cover as a child. Kautsa’s horse falling off the cliff, Kaya and Speaking Rain being captured for slavery… it hits different now as an adult, knowing more of the history behind it all. These books are, in my opinion, so important for young people to read. And I think a big part of why I love history today. Not to mention the illustrations are beautiful, particularly the cover of this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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