Kaya's Short Story Collection

American Girl: Short Stories

by Janet Beeler Shaw

In this keepsake collection, Kaya draws strength from the legends and lessons of her elders. Kaya's world is filled with the beauty of the earth and the joy of tradition. But it is also full of change. As the Nez Perce people move with the seasons to hunt and gather, Kaya faces the new responsibilities that come with taking her place in the community.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Childrens, Short Stories, Native American, Historical, Middle Grade

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 21, 2006

Reviews

[Danae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. I could take or leave these stories. None of them really stood out to me and a couple of them seemed like repeated plot lines from the main series.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read: All stories are set after the end of the Central Series. Mostly good, but there were a few oddities here. The first story felt like a regression for Kaya's character. It was much more like the Kaya from the first book to sulk after losing a footrace, and felt out of place for the Kaya seen in the rest of this book. In one of the stories, Shaw seems to have forgotten that the characters had been careful not to say the name of Kaya's deceased namesake out of respect. And two stories seem to be set at roughly the same time in the story, but are mutually exclusive: in one, she misses a festival that she attends in a later story. But I really liked the story about the beavers (which is really about a traumatized child), and the story about Kaya nursing and training an injured dog, and the last story, about Kaya coming to terms with her sister leaving the family for a time. Most of the stories do a good job of showing how much Kaya has grown and changed over the course of her books.

ETA: It turns out some of the things about these short stories that seemed inconsistent or weird to me were because these short stories are set after Kaya's first mystery, The Silent Stranger. After reading that book, I can see why Kaya feels free to say her namesake's name out loud again, and why she parted ways with Tatlo. Definitely save the short stories for after reading that mystery, if you're doing a full read.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is rare and hard to find, but I was able to get a copy, and I enjoyed reading the five Kaya short stories that it contained, four of which were new to me. "Kaya and the River Girl," the first one, was originally published individually, and the rest are exclusive to this book. Some of the plot points and themes in these stories retread similar ground from the main, six-book series, but they are all interesting and worthwhile.

My favorite story is the second one, which revolves around activity at a beaver dam. This is the most unique and different story in the book, and had great suspense. The other stories are also occasionally suspenseful, and include lots of realistic, historically accurate details about Native American life in the mid-1700s. I enjoyed the beautiful illustrations and detailed historical notes, and marveled over how amazing it is to experience American Girl stories that I never got to read as a child, and never knew existed until now.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading for the first time as an adult. It's really such a shame these short story collections were available for such a relatively short time, because this is just a lovely edition - even when, as mine is, the outside is covered in ex-library stickers. The size and shape are just so satisfying to hold in your hand, the illustrations are lovely, there's even a little ribbon bookmark. Just, A+ production. A few notes on the stories:

Kaya and the River Girl
Kaya gets jealous when a girl from the River People (a) beats her in a race and (b) makes friends with Speaking Rain. It takes a situation where they need to work together for her to push past her jealousy and create a connection who could be a lifelong friend.

Kaya and the Beavers
Kaya and her little brothers love watching a beaver family, so we spend some pages getting to know them, too. We also meet a troubled boy who has lost his parents, and apparently has been acting out - will he hurt the beavers? But in the end, he and Kaya work together, starting to mend both the beaver dam and his wounded spirit.

Kaya and the Flood
If you found the beaver story short on action, this one is one crisis after another. First there's a baby, then a flood, then a horse rescue. But the important thing is that Kaya keeps her head throughout, earns her grandmother's praise, and her calm attitude helps save her beloved horses.

Kaya and the Injured Dog
This one was the first signal to me that these stories (or at least this one) need to follow Kaya's first mystery: Kaya is learning from the medicine woman, and Tatlo is gone. The injured dog here is one that tries to fight a bear, and is badly wounded. Kaya cares for her and trains her.

Kaya and the Grandmothers
Kaya is insecure about her relationship with Speaking Rain again, here because her sister is about to leave to stay with White Braids, as arranged. A wise old woman helps provide some much needed perspective.

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

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stories with good lessons.

[Joey Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaya and the river girl 4*

Kaya becomes angry and envious as spotted owl a girl at their trading site becomes best friends with her sister. She knows she is a good person but the feelings don’t go away until the two girls work together to save an elder woman that fell from a canoe.

I liked this story it was interesting seeing this different side to Kaya, she hadn’t ever felt this way about others in her community but as she didn’t see her sister as much now she wanted all the time with her, so struggling to deal with someone else being around her sister was difficult for her.

I really liked though how she and Spotted Owl also became best friends after working really hard together to help another, then becoming trader partners, it was such a sweet touch. I liked that they found a way to mend the struggle between them.

Kaya and the injured dog 3*

Fox Tail has a new pup that isn’t training very well, after Kaya stops for a small visit the dog follows her but she spots a bear and the dog refuses to listen to her command and gets into a fight with it, getting badly injured.

Kaya was amazing in this one, the way she uses all her knowledge, all her kindess and strength into healing this dog, into training this dog it was honestly so wonderful, she had so much care for others and never seems to even see that she has, she is so wonderful with the dog believing in how it will heal and how it will get better and walk again. It was so wonderful.

Kaya and the grandmothers 4*

Kaya finds an old grandmother in the woods on the way to find her cousin who hadn’t yet arrived, whilst spending time checking out the coyote cubs with the old grandma she learns how to express what was in her heart to her sister.

This one honestly made me tear up a little, after everything Kaya and Speaking Rain went through and to finally be together and then have to part again it was really sad, neither wanted to separate but a promise is a promise and so she had to go, the connection the two have is always so wonderful to me and it was such a sad ending, but a really beautiful read.

Kaya and the beavers 3*

Kaya shows her brothers the beavers she found building their dam, then two things threaten them a bear and Bent Bow, the bear tries to attack them and Bent Bow accidentally destroys the whole dam.

I really liked the simplicity of this story, not a lot happened but it was nice reading a story of the kids just being little kids enjoy the nature and exploring what was around them. I also really liked how Kaya helped with Bent Bow, he was still anger ridden from the grief of his parents death and she took the time to help him, to let him share what he was feeling and together they helped fix the dam. It was a really sweet simple story.

Kaya and the flood 4*

Its root digging time and Kaya is really excited she might actually get to take part this year, but Yellow Flower needed help as she’s having her baby and soon after that a flood starts and the horses have gone.

I really loved how exactly like Swan Circling, Kaya was in this whole story, she was brave and caring and jumped into action without any hesitation, she had things she wanted to do but she she did what was best first for her people and was selfless.

She built the fires, gathered the water, built them the shelters, tethered the horses up, then as the flood came and two horses went missing she went into the waters and rescued them bravely on her own. I was really impressed with this story and it was probably my favourite out of her short stories.

[Rubi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved these! In each story Kaya learns something about herself and about those around her. I think my favorite one is the Beaver story and the one where she helps an injured dog heal after the dog saved her.
It always breaks my heart when people put down animals when they can "no longer function" the way we want them to or when we think they won't make it. Kaya didn't give up and the dog appreciated it and wanted to please her, it was SO cute 😍
Kaya was also really considerate with her elders and in turn they taught her much wisdom. Really wholesome, beautiful illustrations, and educational! Learned quite a bit about another culture which was awesome ☺️

[Little Seal]

I read 'Kaya and the River Girl' outside of this collection as it was published by itself unlike the rest of these stories.

I really respect Native American culture, and liked how Kaya's stories are different from the rest of the AG's for her love of nature and animals.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple stories were very similar to each other and one was similar to a Felicity short story. Not a fan of the River Girl story, but the others were okay.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were short and sweet. I feel as though some didn’t capture Kaya’s personality in the right light, but otherwise kept me entertained.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t as absorbed into the short stories as I was the core series, but they were still cute.

[Bulk Reviews]

I'm only going to review the four stories that were exclusive to this book here.

Kaya and the Grandmothers: 2/5
Kaya angsts about Speaking Rain leaving, and Speaking Rain surprisingly also becomes jealous when Kaya bonds with an old woman called Old Grandmother. The story mentions that Kaya will be going on her vision quest soon, and I can't help but wonder why we didn't get a story about that instead. This one is pretty dull, and reminiscent of all the angsting in Kaya's main series.

Kaya and the Flood: 2/5
Kaya once again misses an annual festival, this time in order to help a woman give birth. There are a lot of action scenes as Kaya escapes a flood, and then rescues Sparks Flying. The action scenes didn't really interest me, and I felt bad that Kaya once again had to miss out on something fun. It also seemed to contradict the grandmothers story, in which Kaya is about to go to the festival.

Kaya and the Injured Dog: 3/5
This is the only one of the short stories that feels like it could be essential reading, since Kaya gains a new pet. It takes place after The Silent Stranger, in which Kaya gives up her dog, Tatlo. I thought this was weird, since I assume most people haven't read all the mysteries. I also don't like being reminded that Kaya gave up her dog, and it's unpleasant to read about a dog being maimed. However, I do like that Kaya nurses him back to health and gives him purpose again.

Kaya and the Beavers: 2/5
This one reminded me of Kirsten's Promise. Kaya must help an angsty, grieving young boy whom we have never met before. There is also a lot about beavers and rescuing them from a bear. I didn't care for this story, but it did cause me to look up more information about beavers, which I have now decided are some of the most remarkable animals in all creation. Also, the Looking Back section was fascinating to me; I can't believe that beavers adapted to be nocturnal after white settlers almost hunted them into extinction. Life finds a way!

So yeah. These stories were not great. They were overall fairly boring, without much purpose in the Kaya canon. Kaya's vision quest or Brown Deer's wedding probably would have added something more to her series.

[Amanda Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection is a really nice piece to have for any American Girl Library. The set includes four new short stories, with a few new illustrations. As always, they are impeccably researched, and the inclusion of the Looking Back section for all the stories is something I sorely missed in the onion paper collector's editions of the American Girl Central Series. These also look lovely on a shelf.

[Beth Moorhead]

It is a little more difficult to identify with Kaya's world of 1764, filled with the beauty of the earth and the joy of Nez Perce tradition before the white man's coming. Kaya uses her strengths and works on her areas of weakness to become a leader of her people.

[EmJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

My childhood favorite. I will keep it to pass on to my kids.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such nice stories. I really love how Kaya matures throughout them. And the best thing is that they're all chronological.