The closest this book gets to touching nature is the sweet sappiness of the story. Though the author put the story forward as true, he was not actually a Native, but a racist con-man who fought to keep segregation and was a member of the KKK.

But this revelation shouldn't be that surprising, since the book is hardly insightful or sensitive in its views. Carter's characters are old, romanticized cliches of the colonial 'Noble Savage'--poor Indians beset by the white man's greed trying to eke a pe More...

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It's so much more than how you would describe it, so much more than words like story about a boy and his grandparents living in the South describe. The words have such power. They are so vivid; they recreate a world, a picture of a different time and place that is gone from us now. Because of their power, I can so perfectly imagine those hills, that place, and those people in my mind. Every time I read this book, I feel as I am there with them, livin More...

The Education of Little Tree touched me on every emotional level!

Little Tree, at age four, went to live with his grandparents after the death of his mom; only a year earlier he’d lost his dad. Little Tree’s grandparents, in their seventies, knew they probably only had a few years to teach Little Tree everything he needed to know to survive on his own started teaching him life’s skills upon their arrival to bring him home to live with them. The story took place in the Appalachian mountains of Ten More...

embarrassing. after caty informed me, i googled the author and learned that the original edition was published as an autobiography, though carter is not of native american heritage, was a leader in the klu klux klan, and active as a segregtionist. wow, huh? if you ever want a defintion of appropriation and cultural theft, here's an exemplary one. (my tattered copy was dubbed as an autobiography.)

Interesting book, especially in the fact that the writer was also a speech writer for George Wallace, infamous Southern biggot and racist. Maybe that shows Carter´s true talent then, the ability to switch between such different literary voices...the question is, which voice is his?

This is the story of Little Tree, a five-year-old boy who is brought up by his Cherokee grandparents after his mother dies. Although the introduction claims it's an autobiographical reminiscence, it is in fact fiction. Moreover, the author is not Cherokee; at one point he was apparently a member of extreme racist groups in the USA.

Nevertheless, it's a very well-written book. I gather that some of the details of Little Tree's life and Cherokee customs are not based on reality, but pure fiction; More...

*Note: there is a lot of controversy and here say about the author of this book. Forget about it and enjoy this book with an innocent mind!

The Education of Little Tree follows a young boy as he follows his Grandpa, learning and loving as he goes. From plowing to whiskey making, it divinely illustrates the power of self. Regardless of external influences, industry, growth, abundance, and love can be grown and cultivated.

This book was so deep and enriching on so many levels. It made me look at my More...

I got out of college without reading a heck of a lot of classic literature, American or otherwise. Now I'm trying to make up for lost time. I picked up The Education of Little Tree because there happened to be a copy here at my sister's house. I vaguely remembered there being some controversy á la Rigoberta Menchú or Nick Frey. The reissue I have from 1999 has "AMERICAN INDIANS/FICTION" on the back cover, but the introduction calls it "[Forrest Carter's] autobiographical remembrances of life wit More...

I finished this book last weekend. I'd put it up there with The Alchemist and To Kill a Mockingbird, it was that powerful. This is a work of fiction (despite the intro, it is not really an autobiography) about a 5 year old Cheerokee boy who is raised by his grandparents, Cheerokee hill people, after the death of his parents. It is set in depression-era Tennessee. The story is told in vignettes; the chapters in chronological order. It was a quick read, just over 200 pages, with some mild language More...

Just finished this and I loved it. I will have to add this one to my list of Favorites. All told from the mouth of a 5 year old... Maybe that's why I was so entertained. I'm surrounded by kids all the time anyway.

The wisdom and utter innocence of Little tree was so refreshing I felt like I was being schooled by a 5 year old. I loved learning about all the Indian traditions.
Toward the end when he had to leave, I was so sad I ached for Little tree and his Grandparents. I fell in love with them an More...

Sometimes people shy away from a book which is called a classic, I hope that you won't hesitate to read this absolutely wonderful book.

The book opens in the hills of Appalachia, where the young orphaned boy Little Tree lives with his grandparents. His grandmother is Cherokee, and his grandfather is white, but grandpa have brought the values of his wife into his way of living, albeit with the wry twist that mountain people are known for.

But since grandpa is also a moonshiner, Little Tree is taken More...

I remember my mother mentioning to me how good this book was said to be when I was a kid in Chattanooga, and then a few years later, how she mentioned the book was written by a former KKK member and was a lie. I also didn't remember this book ever coming up in discussions in creative writing classes about falsehoods and plagiarism and the like, nor do I remember it being mentioned in my American Indian classes.

I held off on reading this book, mostly because I wasn't sure what this knowledge woul More...

Forrest Carter weaves a story of his young childhood being raised by his Cherokee Grandparents in the Appalachian Mountains during the 1930’s depression era. Carter moves the reader in the spiritual elements of how Little Tree is taught to live with Mother Earth and see the signs that she is rebirthing, he also learns how to plant by the signs of the moon, and listen to the birds call. He also is able to speak to trees and observe Mother Nature’s cycles and all life that she holds. Little Tree a More...

The Education of Little Tree is about a 5 year old Indian boy during the Great Depression. The young boy is from Cherokee heritage, and his mother has recently passed away, and his father had died the year before. After both of his parents died, his grandfather and grandmother take him into their house in the Appalachian Mountains. His grandparents begin to call the boy Little Tree. The point of veiw of this story is through Little Tree. The boy's birth name is never mentioned throughout the boo More...

The Education of Little Tree is a childhood memoir written by Forrest Carter,an author famous for his novel Gone To Texas, which was adapted to the screen as The Outlaw Josey Wales. The book is about Carter's time with his Granparents in the mountains of Tennessee after his mother passed away. They are Cherokee Indians, and Carter's Indian name is Little Tree. In the wilderness Little Tree learns life lessons and has unforgettable times with his Granparents, especially Grandpa. Hence the title More...

It's a joy to read with great life lessons. I recommend it. I've read and re-read it to my kids when they were under 8 and they love the story.

If you have read about Forrest Carter and will not read the book because he was a racist and this does not accurately depict the Native Americans, read on to be convinced:

1.What is more important is the overall message that this book portrays, and it is NOT one of racism. It is an endearing account of a little boy's relationship with his grandparents and More...

This is one of the better books I've ever had to read for school, although I'll admit that it's not really up my alley. I think I can lay part of the blame on my pre-research of the book, since it's hard reading this without taking the author controversey into consideration. (It does make it fascinating on a separate level, though.)

The book's story unwinds in a very gentle fashion for much of the novel, although I can't help but feel that the later parts of the book (the orphanage, etc) really c More...

I first heard of this book on an Oprah show probably in the mid 1990's; she said such high praise of it. (I understand later she "took it off" her book shelf due to the controversy around the author's racism). I am not in any way supportive of racism; but this book appears to be something very good that the author did and that Oprah had recognized. That is why I first read it and I have passed it on to many people cause I liked it so much. It did seem to start a bit slow for me the first time I More...

A dear new soul recommended me this novel, and am I so GLAD.

It's like Huckleberry Finn meets Laura Ingalls Wilder with Native American culture and folklore thrown in.

Written from the perspective of a little boy (similar to Huck Finn) who's orphaned when his parents die, he's adopted by his grandparents. You learn the Cherokee way of looking at the land, the environment and nature. The intersting thing, is that most novels of this sort take place during the "Wild West" migration period, but this More...

I thought that it may be interesting to get the opinions of two of the middle school readers. Here is what they thought of The Education of Little Tree.

Little Tree was an orphaned child. His grandpa and grandma took him in after his paretns died. They lived in the mountains. Grandpa got bit by a rattlesnake. Little Tree gets sent to a boarding school where he gets starved treated cruely. His grandfather breaks him out. There was an old man by the name of WIllow John that dies at the end of the b More...

I don't give many five stars but this one definitely earned it. The librarian here at school loaned this one to me last week with the promise that it would be one of my all time favorite books. I started it half-heartedly because I already had so many books to read but could not say no without seeming ungrateful. I am SO glad I took it. This book brought memories rushing back of my own grandparents. While my own family did not grow up on an isolated mountain with little education, they were also More...

Much controversy surrounds the author, Forrest Carter, purported to have been active in White supremacist organizations, and his claim that the book is based on childhood memories of his Cherokee uncle; when in fact his brother says there are no American Indian members in his family. The controversy includes racism and the author's intentions, stereotyping of characters in the book, as well as inaccuracies of the Cherokee language and culture.


My Thoughts


I love books like this, the kind that real More...

If I could give this book 4 1/2 stars, I would. Set in the mountains of Appalachia during the Great Depression, it relates the experiences of Little Tree, a young boy of both Chippewa and white ancestry, between the ages of 5 and 7. A kind of cross between Little House in the Big Woods and The River Why, it's easy enough for young minds to read and interesting enough for old minds to enjoy. There's some material in here that your average middle-schooler might not grasp and some that your average More...

1920s America could offer a hardscrabble life, especially for the "Indians" like Little Tree and his poor but loving Cherokee grandparents. Together they all live in their mountain home, where Grandpa runs the "family business" (moonshine) and Grandma tries to convey all the education she can to them both. Little Tree's education isn't just about reading and reckoning, but in hunting and gathering and distrust of politicians and the cycles of nature, and he is an apt pupil. A misguided social wo More...

So let's get out of the way first that this is fiction, not an autobiography as stated on the cover, and that the author was a founder of the KKK and was active in segregationist policies.

That said, I really enjoyed this book. There are those that say that this is a caricature of what it means to be a Native American, that it's just as insulting as a blackface show is to African-Americans because the characters are portrayed as Noble Savages. I don't know about that. I felt that the characters More...

I have to admit that I liked this book a whole lot better the first time I read it and thought it was a memoir...but it still was good, and recalls an absolutely beautiful part of the country to mind.

I also have to admit my opinion of it is now tempered by the knowledge that it is a fake -- or that the author was not who/what he claimed to be. So, like the more recent debacle with A Million Little Pieces, I became somewhat jaded. I loved it as a tender memoir of an orphaned boy raised by his Ch More...

REVIEW BEFORE LEARNING ABOUT THE INFORMATION IN THE POST SCRIPT BELOW

The Education of Little Tree is a touching, funny and informative autobiography by Forrest Carter, also known by his Cherokee name of Little Tree. The story begins when he is orphaned at the age of five and begins living with his Granma and Granpa – his Mother’s parents. The story is about Little Tree growing up with them in an isolated log cabin in the eastern Tennessee mountains in the 1930’s.

Little Tree gets a great educatio More...

I don't know how this has slipped under my radar for so long. Little Tree has captured my heart. This was a beautiful and poignant memoir of a Cherokee boy raised by his grandparents in the Depression. The narrator's voice as a young child was so sweet and completely believable and captivating.

I feel like saying too much would be inappropriate for a book like this, since as Little Tree says, "Granpa said if there was less words, there wouldn't be as much trouble in the world."

On L.T.'s 6th birt More...

A colleague recommended this book to me and let me borrow his copy. If he had not done this, then I probably wouldn't have read this book, and I'm very glad I did read it.

"The Education of Little Tree" is a memoir, told through the eyes of 5-year-old "Little Tree," who lives with his Native American grandparents after his parents die. Little Tree is very sweet and tells the story of his life with Granma and Granpa in a very sweet way. What I most took away from this book is the good life that Na More...

Incapable of determining a certain number of stars for this book. Shocking discovery: Asa Earl Carter (aka Forrest) was no orphan and no Indian. a white supremacist!!! worked for Alabama governor George Wallace and public proponent of segregation. later ran for governor against Wallace on the white supremacist ticket.

"The Way" - a belief of the supposed Cherokees - seemed to me to justify and explain segregation in a palatable manner. "The Way" of nature is that the weak are weeded out so that More...