Recommended Age:
11
+
Best for independent readers who enjoy quiet, historically grounded stories about resilience and claiming one's place in a community defined by exclusion and prejudice.
About the Book
In 1880, fourteen-year-old Hanna and her widowed father settle in the Dakota Territory, where Hanna faces racism and exclusion as the town's only resident of Chinese heritage while pursuing her dream of becoming a dressmaker. Inspired by Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books, this novel examines the racism embedded in the mythologized pioneer West. A quiet, deeply felt story about resilience and the courage to claim one's place.
Content Ratings
💡
Moderate Themes
The novel centers on sustained racist exclusion, the grief of losing a mother, and the psychological toll of being the only person of color in a hostile white community; Hanna's quiet strength in the face of bigotry is emotionally powerful.
⚔️
Mild Violence
Hanna experiences verbal racism, social exclusion, and a physical attack by a classmate; violence is not graphic but reflects the reality of anti-Asian prejudice in frontier America.
Engagement:
Genre:
Historical Fiction
Published:
2020
Page Count:
256
