CALICO CAPTIVE

Vital and vivid, this short novel based on the actual captivity of a pre-Revolutionary girl of Charlestown, Vermont, presents American history with force and verve. The author graces veracity with a selective eye and ear for incident and dialogue. The heroine, Miriam Willard, with her family a captive of Indians, undertook a forced march north to Canada. En route, her sister's child was born. Sustaining Miriam through the nightmare of captivity was the memory of Phineas Whitney, the young Harvard theological student whose attention had been more than cursory. Bartered by the Indians to French captors. Miriam finds herself in the sumptuous elegance of the Du Quenne family. Although a young French nobleman woos Miriam, when liberation comes she finds the memory of Phineas irresistible. With the additional excitement of the French-English conflict this is a sterling calibre for teen-aged girls.