The Last Sister - A Young Palmetto Book Shout Out

A shout out about another fascinating looking Young Adult novel that educates as it engages with a story.  The story is strong in nature so not for the younger set, but a middle school reader would be appropriate. 
______________________________________________
 
The Last Sister
A Novel

Courtney McKinney-Whitaker

A Young Palmetto Book

University of South Carolina Press

Rife with dangers, a young adult tale of jeopardy and justice set during the Anglo-Cherokee War.

Set during the Anglo-Cherokee War (1758–1761), The Last Sister, by Courtney McKinney-Whitaker, traces a young woman's journey through grief, vengeance, guilt, and love in the unpredictable world of the early American frontier. After a band of fellow settlers fakes a Cherokee raid to conceal the murder of her family, seventeen-year-old Catriona "Catie" Blair embarks on a quest to report the crime and bring the murderers to justice, while desperately seeking to regain her own sense of safety.


This journey leads Catie across rural South Carolina and through Cherokee territory—where she encounters wild animals, physical injury, privation, British and Cherokee leaders, and an unexpected romance with a young lieutenant from a Scottish Highland regiment—on her path to a new life as she strives to overcome personal tragedy.


The Anglo-Cherokee War erupted out of tensions between British American settlers and the Cherokee peoples, who had been allies during the early years of the French and Indian War. In 1759 South Carolina governor William Henry Lyttelton declared war on the Cherokee nation partly in retaliation for what he perceived as unprovoked attacks on backcountry settlements.


Catie's story challenges many common notions about early America. It also presents the Cherokee as a sovereign and powerful nation whose alliance was important to Britain and addresses the complex issues of race, class, and ethnicity that united and divided the British, the Cherokee, the Scottish highlanders, and the Scottish lowlanders, while it incorporates issues of power that led to increased violence toward women on the early American frontier.

A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Courtney McKinney-Whitaker holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of South Carolina Honors College, a master's of library and information science from the University of South Carolina, and a master's in English from Illinois State University. She lives in Illinois with her family.

Visit her website at http://courtneymckinneywhitaker.com or follow her on Twitter @courtneymckwhit.