"A tender reminiscence of the author's boyhood makes a case for the natural approach to life . . . A memorable reading experience . . . poignant, happy, warm, and filled with love and respect for the Indian way of life."

--Booklist

"An engaging memoir of Carter's own boyhood . . . an appealing tale of innocence."

--Publishers Weekly

"Some of it is sad, some of it is hilarious, some of it is unbelievable, and all of it is charming."

--The Atlantic

"There's humor, tragedy, tenderness and most of all, love . . . A lot of people received a lot of education from their grandparents that schools don't offer. But few have expressed it as well as Little Tree has. Very good reading."

--Abilene Reporter

University of New Mexico Press Web Site, December, 2002

The Education of Little Tree tells of a boy orphaned very young, who is adopted by his Cherokee grandmother and half-Cherokee grandfather in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the Great Depression.

"Little Tree" as his grandparents call him is shown how to hunt and survive in the mountains, to respect nature in the Cherokee Way, taking only what is needed, leaving the rest for nature to run its course.

Little Tree also learns the often callous ways of white businessmen and tax collectors, and how Granpa, in hilarious vignettes, scares them away from his illegal attempts to enter the cash economy. Granma teaches Little Tree the joys of reading and education. But when Little Tree is taken away by whites for schooling, we learn of the cruelty meted out to Indian children in an attempt to assimilate them and of Little Tree's perception of the Anglo world and how it differs from the Cherokee Way.

A classic of its era, and an enduring book for all ages, The Education of Little Tree has now been redesigned for this twenty-fifth anniversary edition.