Little Rose is a girl that comes from a Sioux reservation in South Dakota. At one point her people ruled all the land in the Black Hills which the white people gave them in a treaty in the year 1868. But then the white man finds gold in Black Hills and the treaties are forgotten. Little Rose's people are put on a reservation on the Missouri River.

Soon after moving to the reservation, Captain Pratt comes to ask for children for his school in Pennsylvania called the Carlisle Indian School. Little Rose is one of the children sent. Her family tells her that she must go to school and do an act of bravery and find a spirit helper in order to become a warrior.

When Little Rose arrives at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, her teacher Miss Campbell, gives her a diary and tells her to write in it every day and to be herself. She writes what happens at school and about her friends and family back home. While at school, she has to learn to do things that she hadn't done before. One day, Mrs. Mary Hyde, who is the matron over all the girls in the dormitory, says that every classmate must pick a new name because the old names are too hard to say and they tie the girls to their past. Little Rose picks the name Nannie Little Rose.

Pretty Eagle, who is Nannie Little Rose's best friend, finally comes to her school after being ill with fainting sickness --- for a long time, Pretty Eagle kept having fainting sickness that were caused by trances. Nannie Little Rose is so happy when Pretty Eagle comes!

Then one day, while Nannie Little Rose was on a trip with some of her classmates, Pretty Eagle passed away from fainting sickness. Nannie Little Rose mourned over her friend's death for a long time. It took a lot, but she finally got the strength and courage to move on with her life. Eventually, she found a mouse as her spirit helper and as her act of bravery, she decided that she would go to a new school to get even more education.

   -- Reviewed by Ashley, age 13