7.8 /10 1 Votes
Originally published January 2009 | 3.9/5 Goodreads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Choke Creek, published by Bridle Path Press in 2009, is a young adult novel by the American author Lauren Small. A review of Choke Creek was included in the Colorado Reading Council Journal article on "New Titles to Engage Adolescent Readers." Lindsey's Library, a review site for teachers, gave Choke Creek a favorable rating of 94%. The novel has been featured in presentations at annual teaching conferences of the Middle States Council for the Social Studies, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the Colorado Council for the Social Studies. The novel is currently being taught in high schools across the nation.
Plot summary
Fifteen-year-old Evie Glauber is the great great-granddaughter of the man who founded the Rocky Mountain Sun. Her father, Jase Glauber, expects Evie to take over The Sun when she grows up, but all Evie likes to do is ride horses. One day she rides out to a ranch where she meets Eason Swale, the great-grandson of a cavalryman who fought in the famous Battle of Choke Creek.
Eason becomes a soldier and goes off to fight in the Vietnam War. But Evie becomes increasingly convinced that there is more to the story of the Battle of Choke Creek than people say. As she struggles to uncover the truth, she discovers the past haunting her. And when Eason comes home unexpectedly from the war, Evie realizes that the key to saving him is to find out what really happened at Choke Creek.
Choke Creek is based on the Sand Creek Massacre, which took place in Southeastern Colorado in 1864. Small's novel contains real documents from the era, including letters written by cavalrymen who witnessed the massacre and contemporary newspaper accounts.