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Oriole #2
Night of the Full Moon
A young girl living on the Michigan frontier is caught up in the forced evacuation of a group of Potawatomi Indians from their tribal lands in the 1840s
63 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Gloria Whelan
76 books343 followersGloria Whelan is the best-selling author of many novels for young readers, including Homeless Bird, winner of the National Book Award; Fruitlands: Louisa May Alcott Made Perfect; Angel on the Square and its companion, The Impossible Journey; Once on This Island, winner of the Great Lakes Book Award; Farewell to the Island; and Return to the Island. She lives with her husband, Joseph, in the woods of northern Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 13, 2009
A follow-up to Next Spring An Oriole, this book book tells the story of the forced removal of the Potawatami Indians from Lower Michigan from the perspective of a sympathetic white girl.
This story has some great adventure, and a moving cross-cultural friendship at its heart. It deals with a dark event in American history in a way that is true but sensitive to young readers (2nd-3rd grade level).
This story has some great adventure, and a moving cross-cultural friendship at its heart. It deals with a dark event in American history in a way that is true but sensitive to young readers (2nd-3rd grade level).
May 14, 2016
1.5
The girls look too much alike on the cover. They both look Indian and it should’ve been clearer as to which one was which. Their features are too alike, and as I learned Libby has a tan but I don’t think her skin would be as dark as a full-blooded Indian even in that case.
Each fall the Potawatomi Indians went north to their winter trapping grounds. They call themselves the Neshnabek, which means the People.
Fawn wore a red and blue calico dress embroidered with beads and moccasins and her hair was braided with a ribbon. Libby is envious because her pinafore is plain and she doesn’t have any ribbons. I didn’t like that she was jealous. I liked that her dad tells her beauty has nothing to do with fancy adornments.
Fawn says the spirits of the animals called to her father and told him where to put the snares and traps. He sold the skins at stores and bought a dress for her and his wife.
Fawn says she has another ribbon and she’ll give her one and Libby doesn’t even comment on it or say how it made her feel. She’d just been jealous of Fawn’s ribbons, said she didn’t have any and now when she’s offered one she doesn’t even make a comment about it. She just says “the Indians were always giving things away. When Papa was not able to find enough business as a surveyor to provide us with food for the winter, Fawn’s papa brought us corn and wild honey and smoked fish.” She asks where she made her winter camp. Okayy. Don’t comment on the ribbon at all. That’s not weird.
Smallpox was a problem, and she states that it was a white man’s sickness so it was more serious for the Indians. I didn’t think that was something they knew back then. I thought that was something we modern people figured out that they didn’t. She said so many died from it they weren’t buried properly and wolves got to the graves.
Fawn’s brother died and her mom had another baby boy, who also has a red mark on his neck, and his dad thinks the first son’s soul has come back from the spirit land.
Her own mom is having a baby in September. She comes out and says “How pretty you are, Fawn. You look like a princess.” She says she’s going to get her sketchbook and draw her picture. Sketchbook sounded modern, and I didn’t like the continued envy because Libby said she hoped Fawn would let her try her clothes on and her mom might draw a picture of her looking like a princess too. I know how it feels when someone compliments other people and not you so it’s pretty clear they don’t think you’re pretty but you shouldn’t want to look like anyone else.
Fawn works in the cornfields and helps her mom sew and weave baskets. She would visit Libby whenever she could and they’d swim in the pond. They picked wild strawberries in June and wild raspberries in July.
Government agents come to their house and her mom gives them rhubarb juice to drink. They’re always kind to strangers in the woods because there aren’t many people.
The Indians put chips in the bark of trees to mark them as bee trees that would have honey in August. No other Indian would claim the tree.
They lived in wigwams made from sheets of birch bark or mats of woven reeds laid over bent saplings. When they moved north to their hunting grounds they just rolled up the mats and took them. Any fat dogs were eaten, so if the dogs were skinny they wouldn’t be eaten. They burned fires in the wigwams to keep the mosquitoes away.
Libby says she hopes their baby looks just like Fawn’s family’s. That’s when she just got on my nerves. First for wanting her baby to look like Fawn’s family. Stop doing that. Second, for thinking the baby actually could.
Her father, Sanatuwa, learned English from white traders in Detroit. Fawn learned at a missionary school. He invites Libby and her dad to his son’s naming ceremony, and white people are rarely invited to the sacred ceremony, when the moon is fully. They go back home and the morning of the ceremony her mom is having the baby. Libby tells her dad that tonight is the full moon and can’t they go? He says he couldn’t leave her mother, she must see that. She stood in the doorway looking disappointed thinking her dad would change his mind if she did, but he gets mad, saying “For shame, Libby! How can you think of your own selfish pleasure at a time like this?” Exactly. She is so annoying. She thinks “Papa was right. I was cold-hearted. I should have been thinking of poor mama.” I understood she was excited about the naming and was disappointed she couldn’t go but the girl’s track record was really annoying me.
She says she’s going to pick blackberries and instead runs away to the Indian camp. Everyone is dressed up, and the men are dancing to the drum beats and the children played ball or wrestled. The men’s faces were painted in stripes and yellow and red patches. Their heads were wrapped in bright cloths. The women wore necklaces and earbobs of silver and beads. The children’s moccasins were embroidered with beaded flowers and leaves.
Libby says “Everybody looks so dressed up. I don’t fit in.” Fawn has her come to her wigwam and gives her a dress, ribbon and beaded necklace to wear. Libby doesn’t even say thank you or compliment the outfit. She just says she longed to see herself in a mirror.
They are corn porridge in maple syrup, fried fish and roasted venison.
The soldiers come and shoot and order them to gather what they want to take with them and leave. They’re forcing them out west and off their lands. When Sanatuwa notices Libby he groans, which seemed like a really unrealistic reaction. The leader, a man, I don’t think would groan aloud at seeing a white girl in the fray. I think he’d be more put-together than that.
He tells a soldier she’s a white girl who belongs to settlers near here. Of course the stupid soldier refuses to see reason, says if she’s a white girl why is she wearing Indian clothes? What is she doing here with you? Her tan skin from the sun makes her look like an Indian.
“I’m not an Indian,” I insisted. I forgot how only one hour before I was longing to be one.”
Not likable at all. He isn’t listening so she grabs the reins and says “I’m not an Indian! I don’t want to be an Indian!” Very nice of her to turn on them like that. What a terrible main character. I didn’t like her at all.
She offers to show him the dress and shoes she came in, he says she probably stole them. She tells him her name and he says it doesn’t matter, an Indian is an Indian. It was senseless how they refused to see reason.
“I wasn’t shaking. It wasn’t just what was happening to me. It was what was happened to all of them: Fawn and her mother and father and all of the members of her clan.”
Hahaha. I really believe that. It’s too late now to make your character likable. Then why hasn’t she been thinking of anyone but herself is she’s worried about them? She hasn’t said one word about them, only distanced herself from them and made it clear she isn’t one of them.
For days they travel west, the women and children in the wagons and the men on horses. Fawn’s dad promises to return her to her family, because Libby’s mom once saved Fawn’s life so he’ll return the favor and see that she doesn’t lose her daughter either. They escape at night and all his people agree he has to do it and he leaves them in the care of a powerful leader. I found it bad that the leader would leave his own people and run away with his family, abandoning them to their fate. It’s kind of cowardly. Her mom was worried and her dad had a posse looking for her. Fawn and her family are going north to the hunting grounds, Libby’s dad wants to move yet again, so they’re going north too, might be near Fawn and the book just ends right there. I couldn’t believe it. It left off so unfinished, right in the middle of a moment.
The low rating and the reason I didn’t give it 2 stars is because I didn’t like Libby at all and I hated the ending. The story just didn’t have anything going for it. There were some short details of their way of life back then and culture but it was written too childishly and could have been written better, even though it’s a kid’s book. I didn’t know it was a series, I didn’t even know there was a book before this one, but finding out the story isn’t even concluded just made it that much worse. I expected there to be some character growth where she would become a better person but that must happen in the next book. I also didn’t know there would be pictures and so few words on the page and that made a short book even shorter. I didn’t know it was a short story or that it was written so simply, so I didn’t really enjoy it.
The girls look too much alike on the cover. They both look Indian and it should’ve been clearer as to which one was which. Their features are too alike, and as I learned Libby has a tan but I don’t think her skin would be as dark as a full-blooded Indian even in that case.
Each fall the Potawatomi Indians went north to their winter trapping grounds. They call themselves the Neshnabek, which means the People.
Fawn wore a red and blue calico dress embroidered with beads and moccasins and her hair was braided with a ribbon. Libby is envious because her pinafore is plain and she doesn’t have any ribbons. I didn’t like that she was jealous. I liked that her dad tells her beauty has nothing to do with fancy adornments.
Fawn says the spirits of the animals called to her father and told him where to put the snares and traps. He sold the skins at stores and bought a dress for her and his wife.
Fawn says she has another ribbon and she’ll give her one and Libby doesn’t even comment on it or say how it made her feel. She’d just been jealous of Fawn’s ribbons, said she didn’t have any and now when she’s offered one she doesn’t even make a comment about it. She just says “the Indians were always giving things away. When Papa was not able to find enough business as a surveyor to provide us with food for the winter, Fawn’s papa brought us corn and wild honey and smoked fish.” She asks where she made her winter camp. Okayy. Don’t comment on the ribbon at all. That’s not weird.
Smallpox was a problem, and she states that it was a white man’s sickness so it was more serious for the Indians. I didn’t think that was something they knew back then. I thought that was something we modern people figured out that they didn’t. She said so many died from it they weren’t buried properly and wolves got to the graves.
Fawn’s brother died and her mom had another baby boy, who also has a red mark on his neck, and his dad thinks the first son’s soul has come back from the spirit land.
Her own mom is having a baby in September. She comes out and says “How pretty you are, Fawn. You look like a princess.” She says she’s going to get her sketchbook and draw her picture. Sketchbook sounded modern, and I didn’t like the continued envy because Libby said she hoped Fawn would let her try her clothes on and her mom might draw a picture of her looking like a princess too. I know how it feels when someone compliments other people and not you so it’s pretty clear they don’t think you’re pretty but you shouldn’t want to look like anyone else.
Fawn works in the cornfields and helps her mom sew and weave baskets. She would visit Libby whenever she could and they’d swim in the pond. They picked wild strawberries in June and wild raspberries in July.
Government agents come to their house and her mom gives them rhubarb juice to drink. They’re always kind to strangers in the woods because there aren’t many people.
The Indians put chips in the bark of trees to mark them as bee trees that would have honey in August. No other Indian would claim the tree.
They lived in wigwams made from sheets of birch bark or mats of woven reeds laid over bent saplings. When they moved north to their hunting grounds they just rolled up the mats and took them. Any fat dogs were eaten, so if the dogs were skinny they wouldn’t be eaten. They burned fires in the wigwams to keep the mosquitoes away.
Libby says she hopes their baby looks just like Fawn’s family’s. That’s when she just got on my nerves. First for wanting her baby to look like Fawn’s family. Stop doing that. Second, for thinking the baby actually could.
Her father, Sanatuwa, learned English from white traders in Detroit. Fawn learned at a missionary school. He invites Libby and her dad to his son’s naming ceremony, and white people are rarely invited to the sacred ceremony, when the moon is fully. They go back home and the morning of the ceremony her mom is having the baby. Libby tells her dad that tonight is the full moon and can’t they go? He says he couldn’t leave her mother, she must see that. She stood in the doorway looking disappointed thinking her dad would change his mind if she did, but he gets mad, saying “For shame, Libby! How can you think of your own selfish pleasure at a time like this?” Exactly. She is so annoying. She thinks “Papa was right. I was cold-hearted. I should have been thinking of poor mama.” I understood she was excited about the naming and was disappointed she couldn’t go but the girl’s track record was really annoying me.
She says she’s going to pick blackberries and instead runs away to the Indian camp. Everyone is dressed up, and the men are dancing to the drum beats and the children played ball or wrestled. The men’s faces were painted in stripes and yellow and red patches. Their heads were wrapped in bright cloths. The women wore necklaces and earbobs of silver and beads. The children’s moccasins were embroidered with beaded flowers and leaves.
Libby says “Everybody looks so dressed up. I don’t fit in.” Fawn has her come to her wigwam and gives her a dress, ribbon and beaded necklace to wear. Libby doesn’t even say thank you or compliment the outfit. She just says she longed to see herself in a mirror.
They are corn porridge in maple syrup, fried fish and roasted venison.
The soldiers come and shoot and order them to gather what they want to take with them and leave. They’re forcing them out west and off their lands. When Sanatuwa notices Libby he groans, which seemed like a really unrealistic reaction. The leader, a man, I don’t think would groan aloud at seeing a white girl in the fray. I think he’d be more put-together than that.
He tells a soldier she’s a white girl who belongs to settlers near here. Of course the stupid soldier refuses to see reason, says if she’s a white girl why is she wearing Indian clothes? What is she doing here with you? Her tan skin from the sun makes her look like an Indian.
“I’m not an Indian,” I insisted. I forgot how only one hour before I was longing to be one.”
Not likable at all. He isn’t listening so she grabs the reins and says “I’m not an Indian! I don’t want to be an Indian!” Very nice of her to turn on them like that. What a terrible main character. I didn’t like her at all.
She offers to show him the dress and shoes she came in, he says she probably stole them. She tells him her name and he says it doesn’t matter, an Indian is an Indian. It was senseless how they refused to see reason.
“I wasn’t shaking. It wasn’t just what was happening to me. It was what was happened to all of them: Fawn and her mother and father and all of the members of her clan.”
Hahaha. I really believe that. It’s too late now to make your character likable. Then why hasn’t she been thinking of anyone but herself is she’s worried about them? She hasn’t said one word about them, only distanced herself from them and made it clear she isn’t one of them.
For days they travel west, the women and children in the wagons and the men on horses. Fawn’s dad promises to return her to her family, because Libby’s mom once saved Fawn’s life so he’ll return the favor and see that she doesn’t lose her daughter either. They escape at night and all his people agree he has to do it and he leaves them in the care of a powerful leader. I found it bad that the leader would leave his own people and run away with his family, abandoning them to their fate. It’s kind of cowardly. Her mom was worried and her dad had a posse looking for her. Fawn and her family are going north to the hunting grounds, Libby’s dad wants to move yet again, so they’re going north too, might be near Fawn and the book just ends right there. I couldn’t believe it. It left off so unfinished, right in the middle of a moment.
The low rating and the reason I didn’t give it 2 stars is because I didn’t like Libby at all and I hated the ending. The story just didn’t have anything going for it. There were some short details of their way of life back then and culture but it was written too childishly and could have been written better, even though it’s a kid’s book. I didn’t know it was a series, I didn’t even know there was a book before this one, but finding out the story isn’t even concluded just made it that much worse. I expected there to be some character growth where she would become a better person but that must happen in the next book. I also didn’t know there would be pictures and so few words on the page and that made a short book even shorter. I didn’t know it was a short story or that it was written so simply, so I didn’t really enjoy it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 3, 2024
Another Excellent Gloria Whelen Story
I enjoyed "Night of the Full Moon." Gloria Whelan is such a wonderful author. She makes her every story come alive. I will read every book of hers that I can find. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys history. It is a book for all ages. This is a trilogy of books. The first book is, "Next Spring an Oriole." "Night of the Full Moon is second. The last is: "The Shadow of the Wolf." I'm eager to read this last book if the trilogy.
I enjoyed "Night of the Full Moon." Gloria Whelan is such a wonderful author. She makes her every story come alive. I will read every book of hers that I can find. I recommend this book to everyone who enjoys history. It is a book for all ages. This is a trilogy of books. The first book is, "Next Spring an Oriole." "Night of the Full Moon is second. The last is: "The Shadow of the Wolf." I'm eager to read this last book if the trilogy.
January 24, 2020
I’ve finished ‘Night of the Full Moon’.
In the beginning I felt the story is slow. However it changed dramatically in P.32, and after that I was drawn into the story more and more. When I realized, I was reading the last page.
If there had been a little more twists, I’d enjoyed more. But as a book for children this book is great.
In the beginning I felt the story is slow. However it changed dramatically in P.32, and after that I was drawn into the story more and more. When I realized, I was reading the last page.
If there had been a little more twists, I’d enjoyed more. But as a book for children this book is great.
August 14, 2020
This is the second book in a series about the friendship of two families who are living in Michigan in 1840 - a Potawatomi family and a family of settlers.
* Ages 8-11+. This is a slim chapter book. Similar in tone/setting to the Little House series, but with less character development and fewer details.
* Ages 8-11+. This is a slim chapter book. Similar in tone/setting to the Little House series, but with less character development and fewer details.
December 21, 2022
I read this book for the 52 books in 52 weeks reading challenge. I used the 2019 reading challenge prompt read a western. This is not my favorite genre, but i did like this Indian tale. It reminds me of a fictional version of "bury my heart at wounded knee" I think what the Native Americans had to go through was so sad.
June 28, 2017
This is a great book about friendship and overcoming obstacles. Fawn's family must sneak away from the soldiers and get Libby back home to her family. Great look at the other side of things and how brave Native Americans had to be during these times.
April 20, 2021
Reading this along with students, I can say I prefer this over the first in its series. The pace is quicker and a more harrowing adventures is had. Though I say this, my students said it had a slower start, but that they also enjoyed it more than they expected.
March 10, 2022
A different look at how colonial and native people interacted - with two girls at the center of the story. Features an historical fiction look at the sad Trail of Tears happening in U.S. history, but with a bit of a positive spin on it.
November 29, 2017
Another wonderful children's book, this one shedding a light on how Native Americans were treated poorly by the U.S. government and the friendship between two girls of different cultures.
September 22, 2021
I read it with my niece and it was interesting. I would recommend it for young readers.
July 19, 2022
A continuation of the story, this second book focuses on the forced relocation of the Indians. Well written.
January 29, 2025
This was an okay book. I liked that Sanatua helped Libby get home and that Libby's father helped him in return. I would have liked to have seen the girls' friendship developed a little bit more.
November 25, 2025
"It's a little suspenseful but I think other people would terrifically love reading it!" -Conley, age 10
June 26, 2014
gr 3-5 62 pgs
1841, near Saginaw, Michigan.
Libby Mitchell and her family are good friends with Fawn and her family. When Libby sneaks off to visit the Potawatomi village so she can attend the naming ceremony of Fawn's little brother, she along with the entire village is rounded up by soldiers and forced West. Fawn's father assures Libby that he'll find a way to get her home and Libby hopes that he is right.
This book (other than the setting) reminded me of "Cherokee Sister" by Debbie Dadey.
sequel to "Next Spring in Oriole"
1841, near Saginaw, Michigan.
Libby Mitchell and her family are good friends with Fawn and her family. When Libby sneaks off to visit the Potawatomi village so she can attend the naming ceremony of Fawn's little brother, she along with the entire village is rounded up by soldiers and forced West. Fawn's father assures Libby that he'll find a way to get her home and Libby hopes that he is right.
This book (other than the setting) reminded me of "Cherokee Sister" by Debbie Dadey.
sequel to "Next Spring in Oriole"
April 16, 2013
This was a "read aloud" to my 4th graders who thoroughly enjoyed it. As this is book #2 of a series, some are now interested in reading the other books on their own.
Read
June 12, 2014x3
January 19, 2016
Very good Children's book. Well written for a easy read for young child or young adult. Beautiful story.
September 28, 2017
A people will be friend in a fıght
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews