Blue Ribbons for Meg

by Adèle de Leeuw, Mac Schweitzer (Illustrator)

"A U.S. Army cavalry post on the Dakota plains approximately 1900, when the cavalry still rode horses and most Indians were still following their tribal ways. Into this exciting but very strange kind of life came young Meg, from Boston. She was afraid of horses, and simply terrified of Indians. She liked to read and knit, but this didn't fit in at all with the ideas of her husky Western cousins, Rick and Phoebe Armstrong. When Captain Armstrong offered to give Meg a pony of her own she chose a half-starved little pinto which she named Papoose because it was little and an Indian. With Papoose Met gradually learned to take part in the furn of the other children of the post."

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Horses, Juvenile

145 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Originally a librarian and secretary for her father, Adèle Louise de Leeuw loved writing from childhood and ultimatel wrote more than 75 books, in many different genres, and often collaborated with her sister, Cateau de Leeuw.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a time when teddy bears were new, so 1904-ish? Profoundly racist, but also not racist for the time and place. Meg's uncle is an officer in the US Army keeping an eye on the Dakota who are in the interment camp that is the Rosebud Reservation, twenty years after the Indian wars, but the kids on the army post all take the Dakota as people to be curious about who are good with horses. The kids accept white supremacy as a settled fact, but every interaction with the Dakota is positive. There is a tense moment when the Utes leave their reservation, presumably to join up the Dakota and rebel against the white people who are actively stealing their land and are going to cause the Dust Bowl in, like, thirty years, but, individually, less racist than I was worried about, except some uses of the female slur, and the important thing is that no one has to read this book at all unless you're doing a thesis on Boomer kids' lit representations of the West or horse girl novels in American children's literature, but absolutely no one else has to read this racist, disjointed, but modestly entertaining novel and that's okay. Not all books survive history.

Meg's parents send Meg to her aunt and uncle in South Dakota because they're going to China, and Meg, used to Boston, immediately hates it because the army post is a dusty hinterland, and she wants to read books and ride in the carriage around Boston Common and her cousins think she's insane for wanting these things, and this jerk boy named Buff puts a frog in her pocket. Meg's uncle buys her a pony- she chooses the skinny one that everyone tells her not to choose -and it starts eating like a piggy and becoming a chonky beast who likes being ridden. Meanwhile, there are interesting things on the military base: 4th of July when the Dakota come over for entertainment, a rhyming man who lives in a shack, a new puppy, a kid brother who likes skunks. There's even a harrowing fire where Meg's pony might be lost. In the end, a general comes and gives the book a funny interlude. Meg and the other kids perform their riding skills for the general and there are Blue Ribbons for Meg, because her riding skills are proficient now, and she's also Most Improved.

The regiment is giving a review for the general, and the kids are watching and whispering about how the general looks cross. As the review ends, Buff, who is into cowboy tricks, swings his rope extra high and lassoes the general.

"'I was practicing a new trick," Buff said humbly. And then, with a grin, "I was pretty good, wasn't I?'
'If you meant to lasso me, yes,' the General said. "If you were aiming for the flagpole, no. Confound it, this place is hotter than Tophet.'
Buff said quickly, 'Would you like a piece of ice, sir?'
'Certainly I'd like a piece of ice!' the General said testily. 'Do you think I enjoy sitting in the broiling sun swallowing a carload of prairie dust?'
Buff reached in his pocket and held out a lump of ice. Water dripped through his fingers, and Meg saw that his pocket was dripping too. 'Here you are, sir,' he said to the astonished General. 'It was a lot bigger, but it doesn't last long. If you wrap it in your handkerchief, you can cool your face... or suck it,' he suggested.
To their vast surprise, the General got out a snowy handkerchief and laid the piece of ice tenderly in it. He twisted the handkerchief and passed the lump over his red leather face. 'First Christian thing that's happened to me today,' he muttered."

In the grand scheme of things, don't read racist books. There are other books. This was also pretty slow. I got it out of a Little Free Library on the Evansville segment of the IAT but didn't finish it for another month because of its slowness. It had its moments, but it was no Marguerite Henry.

[Harriet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was probably 8 - fell in love with horses and the "WEST"! As I re-read it last month I found that there is a lot of good moral teaching going on, and I want my granddaughters to read it with me someday :)
THEN, I looked the author up, and the Santa Clara Library system has several of her books, most of them written between WW 1 and 2, and although they are about middle to late teenage girls, they too have good morals and problem solving examples that wouldn't hurt any young lady I know to read....
Sometimes I think it's too bad I've read so much all my life, because I've already read all the good authors :( ... then I find someone 'new to me' and am encouraged that there are still authors out there that I probably haven't read yet - where's the icon for tongue in cheek? :)

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was delighted to come across this book at a used bookstore recently. It was even the same edition I owned as a child and as soon I as started reading, the whole story came back to me. Meg is spending the summer with her cousins at a cavalry post. Everything is so different from Boston that at first she is very unhappy and doesn't fit it. But she gets an Indian pony and learns to ride and is soon feeling right at home. There are plenty of adventures, though they do come and go rather quickly in only 116 pages. And the depictions of the Native Americans is pretty outdated and stilted. But it was a quick and enjoyable visit down memory lane for me.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiled city girl has to go to the country to live for a year with family she's never met. The plot is old and done, but in this book we have some interesting turns. Meg is sent to live on an army post around 1900 while there is still tension in American and Indian relations. The wild country, the need to ride, changes her from the prim and proper girl she is on arrival to one who learns to embrace the outdoors. With dog and pony she's a different person, a better person who comes to earn the respect of those around her.

The values in the book are old fashioned. But is that wrong? Forget political correctness...keeping in mind that this book was written in an entirely different era from now. There are truths within the story, lessons learned that children today could take away from. Overall this is a good story and I'm glad I stumbled across it.

[Lori Kresse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written in the 1940s which explains the awful stereotypes and racism about native Americans. If you choose to read this story to a child, you will need to discuss how harmful and untrue the depictions are and give context for the situation of native Americans in the US at that time and throughout history. The main story, of a young girl from Boston who stays with relatives on a remote cavalry post and gains confidence and friends and a community would likely be well-received by many children. Lots of adventures and friendship and details about life on a post out West.