Whelan, Gloria. Miranda's Last Stand. HarperCollins, 1999. ISBN 0-06-028252-5. $14.89. 131 pp. A 3-7 FI Reviewed by Nancy Alder Eleven-year-old Miranda and her mother sign on as laundry workers with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the 1880s. Miranda barely recalls her father, who was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn when she was just two years old. Miranda's acceptance of her mother's hatred of all Indians is tested when she meets real Indians, who are performing in the show. There is a nice attempt to humanize the historical characters and present the Sioux view of events leading up to and following the battle. Depiction of the show is interesting, and there is a bit of drama when Sitting Bull and Miranda's mother confront one another and again when the Indians help nurse the mother through a fever. This good, substantial read offers an accurate version of the battle and of the racial feelings of time. Well done.
