Durrant, Lynda. The Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell. Clarion, 1998. ISBN 0-3958-53982. $15.00. 183 pp. A 6+ HF Reviewed by Tom Wright Osborne, Mary Pope. Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan. Scholastic, 1998. ISBN 0-5901-3462-0. $15.00. 184 pp. A 5+ FI Reviewed by Tom Wright These two books are reviewed together because of their similarities. Both portray young women taken captive by Indian tribes at about the same time in the Northeast. Durrant creates a fictionalized narrative based on a real-life event, while Osborne creates a diary out of this white captive theme drawn from a number of real-life experiences. Both lives are changed by exposure to a different culture. Durrant deals with this starkly, refusing to romanticize the Delaware. Osborne paints a much more heroic picture of the Lenape. Both authors use the captive’s voice to relate the account. Catharine Logan is a thirteen-year-old Quaker, and her experience convinces her that the Lenape share the same light as her people. Catharine has dream visions that warn her of impending events with the Lenape, and she feels the Holy Spirit speaks to all peoples. When she is finally returned to her people, few can regard the Indians as kindred spirits. This and her experiences with the Lenape cause a deep questioning of her faith. Mary Campbell is twelve years old when abducted, and her story resonates more for the starkness of the narrative. She is forced to march with other captives all the way to Ohio. Her captors simply discard those who would slow them down. This is contrasted with true devotion, shown to Mary by her adopted family. This devotion gradually softens Mary’s heart, and she feels herself being assimilated into this foreign culture. Durrant uses Mary’s musings very effectively to show the reader how these captives can never be the same again, they having lived in both worlds. The world views are so dissimilar that, at least in Mary’s case, she can never feel comfortable in white society again. Both are good reads, Beaded Moccasins being a more gripping account. Standing in the Light is an offering in the Dear America series.
