Background and
Summary
The story of Caddie Woodlawn and her
pioneer adventures during the 1860s in Western Wisconsin has been heard and
enjoyed by three generations of Americans.
The book Caddie Woodlawn, which
won the Newbury Medal in 1936, focuses
on Catherine Augusta Woodlawn, an energetic eleven-year-old tomboy who prefers
the name Caddie rather than “Catherine Augusta,” the outdoors rather than cooking,
and adventuring with her brothers rather cleaning with her sisters. When her family makes a trip to Wisconsin
from Boston, Caddie became very sick and weak, so her father lets her run free
with her brothers to gain her strength back, and she becomes one of their gang.
Throughout the book, Caddie frequently gets into mischief and constantly finds
new ways to enjoy the outdoor life of a settler.
Her adventures include running wild
with her brothers, befriending the local Indians, and getting into fights at
school. The story is set during a time when Indian massacres were a real and
constant threat, and the book alludes to massacres in Minnesota and other
nearby settlements where hundreds of settlers were killed by angry Native
Americans. In the climax of the book, a
rumor spreads like wildfire that the Indians were gathering for a massacre.
Caddie and her father are sure that the friendly Indians nearby would never
attack them, but the settlers are so scared that they panic anyway. The
settlers all flock to Caddie’s house because it is the biggest farm and because
her father is the most respected man around. While helping her mother prepare a
meal one evening, she overhears some of the men talking about a preemptive
strike against the Indians. Worried that
they would go against her father’s will and attack her friends, she takes a
family horse and goes out alone into the snow to warn the Indians. After
warning her friend, Indian John, he takes her home, they meet Caddie’s father
just outside the farm, and the whole situation is diffused. This story and others throughout the book are
not all just fiction.
The author, Carol Ryrie Brink grew
up at the turn of the century and was
raised partly by her grandmother who was raised in the little Western Wisconsin
town of Dunnville, just south of Menomonie. Her grandmother’s name was Caddie Woodhouse Watkins, and the author says that most
of the book was inspired by her grandmother’s stories of her early life as an
American pioneer. The original Woodhouse farm can still be seen today and is a
national historical location. Over the years, the story has been adapted for
radio, television, and dramatic productions and has become a very important
account of pioneer life in the 19th century.
Interest
Caddie Woodlawn is a book that would be
enjoyed by both girls and boys and is appropriate for 4th-6th graders to read. The
new versions of the book are colorfully illustrated several times per chapter,
and they bring the story alive to new readers who are just discovering the
novel. When I first started the book, I thought it was a girl book, and I was
sure I would lose interest, but by the end of chapter one, I was hooked. Although
the work is over 200 pages, it flows easy because of numerous and short
chapters and, is not hard to understand. The book is interesting to boys even
though the main character is a girl because she is a tomboy, and most boys can
relate to her activities and antics are things with which most boys can relate.
It would also be interesting to girls because most girls go through a tomboy
stage, and one of the themes throughout the book is her character evolution
from tomboy to lady.
Developing Mature Readers
The novel deals with several tasks that young people must accomplish to become well-adjusted adults.
Coming to Terms with the Physical Body. Caddie
comes to terms with the fact that she does not look physically like her
brothers or the boys at school, and she starts to act more like the lady she
really is as the book progresses. She notices her own more “womanly figure” and
how her older sister Clara starts to get noticed by boys around town. By the
end of the book, Caddie starts to care what she looks like and starts widening
the gap between her and her brothers.
Developing Relationships with people of the
same age. Being a settler in the wilderness of Wisconsin meant that people
were few and friends outside of your own family were rare for a child. But
Caddie overcomes this hardship because she is never without her brothers and
sisters. They are like best friends most of the time, but thanks to a small one
room country school, Caddie and her siblings are all able to meet other
children and make friends. Caddie in particular, becomes best friends with Maggie
Bunn, another settler’s daughter several farms away. Even though they are
practically neighbors by todays standards, Caddie and Maggie only see each
other for church and school because of how far away they live.
Discovering her Gender Role in her Culture. Throughout the book, Caddie is pressured by society and
by her mother to become a lady and not live so much like a boy. At the
beginning of the book, Caddie ignores these influences, and continues to live
the outdoor boys life she has been living. But towards the end, Caddie’s father
tells her what she will become and clearly defines the gender roles of their
culture. He says, “A woman’s task is to teach her family gentleness and
courtesy and kindness and love. It’s a hard task too – harder than cutting
trees, or building mills or damming rivers. It takes nerve and courage and
patience, but good women have those things” (Brink, 170). After this talk with her father, Caddie
realizes the need for doing “girly” things, and at least attempts to work with
her mother and sisters in the house.
Becoming Aware of and Living Consistently with her
Beliefs and Values. Caddie is
constantly becoming aware of her own beliefs and convictions throughout the
book. She gleans much from her parents the circuit rider preacher that comes to
town only a few times a year. Several times her father reads out of the old
family Bible and regular family devotions are implied. She knows when something
is wrong or right. When she heard the men plotting to go kill the Indians, she
instantly knew that was wrong. There is no blurring of morality, and Caddie is
brought up in a way that reflects the biblical view of right or wrong. She
makes the choice to go warn the Indians without council of her parents or
friends. She knows, without hesitation, the right thing to do. Readers will
learn how to effectively stand for what they believe in and use Caddie’s story
as an example of how to stick with what you believe.
Potential Issues
Caddie Woodlawn includes very few
potential issues or objectionable elements. Since the book won the Newbery
medal in 1936, Children’s authors were very conservative compared to today’s
authors and books were much cleaner. No profanity, sexual references, or
violence is shown at all. One of the issues I could see today would be that
sadly, not many students could relate to the almost perfect home life that is
portrayed in this book. Similar to Little House on the Prairie, Caddie Woodlawn
presents a large family with both parents and a very stable home life. There
is sibling fighting, but the parents quickly quell any major sibling rivalries.
The parents have a strong role and influence on their children throughout the
book and are portrayed as the main authority figures.
Recommendation
This
book has won not only a Newbery Medal, but also several other major literary
awards as well. Just last year, it was placed in the top 100 children’s novels
by the
School Library Journal. I highly recommend
this book to any upper elementary or middle school teacher and student. I will
have my own children read it someday because of the Christian aspects and clean
content. It would be perfect for a Christian school or a homeschooled
environment because the teacher could bring out the Christian elements of the
book and focus on the Christian worldview upon which the book was written. Teachers
will find Caddie Woodlawn easy to
teach or read aloud to their students, and because of its exciting elements, I
am sure many children will want to read more on their own.
Works Cited
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie
Woodlawn. New York: MacMillan Publishers: 1935. Print.
University of Minnesota Libraries. “Caddie Woodlawn.” Kerlan Collection. 2010. Web.4 Apr 2013.
Scholastic Learning. “Caddie Woodlawn Discussion Guide.” Scholastic. 2008. Web. 3 Apr 2013.
