"April Raintree" by Beatrice Culleton

The book April Raintree definitely touched the heart.  The lives of April and Cheryl Raintree are the focus of this novel by Beatrice Culleton.  The story follows the lives of these sisters from preschoolers to adulthood and details the many trials they face in their lifetime.  The story is written from April's perspective so the reader has a great insight into April and how she feels about being a "half-breed".  April prefers to pass herself off as a white person.  Since she is fair skinned this is possible.  However, her sister Cheryl has the same brown skins as their father.  It makes me wonder if that is why she was more passionate about the Metis Culture.  Had she been fair skinned like her mother and sister, would her passion for the Indian side of her still been as strong?  Most of Cheryl's feelings come through the narrator so it is unclear how accurate April's perceptions were.  Only at the end of the book when a portion of Cheryl's journal is included, does the reader have a true sense of Cheryl's thoughts and feelings. 

This book covers many heavy topics for adolescents to discuss including:  physical and emotional abuse, alcoholism, rape, and suicide.  When she is living at the DeRosier farm, April has to endure both physical and emotional abuse.  The emotional abuse extends beyond the farm to school but results from the wardrobe that Ms. DeRosier has purchased for April to wear.  In the later half of the book, April has to deal with rape and the emotional suffering that results.  The constant feeling of being "dirty" causes her to takes daily baths where she scrubs at her skin.  She has to deal with the fear that the jury will not believe her but in the end she has the satisfaction of knowing the perpetrator was found guilty.  Throughout the book April is confronted with the evils of alcoholism and how it lead to the fracture of her family life.  At the end of the book she loses her sister to suicide which happen to be the way her mother died as well.  Both of these women in her life, jumped to their death from the  Louise Bridge. 

Due to the heavy nature of the book's topic, if I were to use this book in a literature class, I would want to allow for plenty of time for discussion with the students.  The action does keep the reader on the edge of their seat but the last few chapters are full of so much depression that I would want to talk with students about this.  Although there begins to be an indication that Cheryl has succumb to alcohol, in a very brief period of time the reader also learns that Cheryl has prostituted herself, had a baby out of wedlock, chose alcohol over her child just as her parents had done, and committed suicide.  I am thinking of a student who may have alcoholism in their family and how this book and the results of Cheryl's life could cause a sense of despair.  For in the end, Cheryl fell prey to all the evils the social worker has said would happen.  As a result, students may find a lack of hope for a person facing similar circumstances.  The one light in the ending is that April seems to be doing okay and she is planning to raise her nephew.