What readers think of A Council of Dolls, plus links to write your own review.

This book is a poignant story about the treatment of the Dakota people through generations of heartbreaking internal trauma and the systematic effort to strip native Americans of their cultural heritage through the use of colonizers' Indian schools. The book is cleverly organized as it spans three generations of women who narrate the story including the dolls they carry as comforting, wisdom characters. While the trauma can be difficult to imagine, the message of this book shines a light on the destructive results of early American ignorance and intolerance of native American culture. The redeeming feature here is the resilience of those who come to understand this history and work to thrive in spite of it. A good read on an important historical topic, containing enduring lessons applicable to current events!

Having a great interest in the Native American culture, I was looking forward to reading A Council of Dolls. Beginning Part 1, I started to lose concentration and considered stopping. However, I continued and began to find each part more involved in the story of the dolls and the significance of each one. The symbolism applied to so many things was fascinating. The attempt to erase all culture from children and the loss of Indigenous people from many tribes was horrifying. By the last part the stories all came together in a good way. The words of wisdom by the author at the end was awe inspiring!! I'm glad I read this book but suggest that it be read twice to grasp all that was so important to their many lives.

This book tells an interesting story of girls and their special relationship with the dolls they own who counsel, comfort, and protect them. Certain elements of the story are repetitive without further information to move the plot. Part four, for example, could stand alone because it seems like the same story but through the dolls eyes which mostly we already know. Couldn't Jesse's resolution been folded into her chapter? The added characters add little. Maybe it's just my flaw but also characters names were confusing. Ina, is that a Dakota word for grandmother? Because grandmothers name was Cora. Then there's Sissy-Jesse, who has many names in between, maybe "less is more"?