Addie Slaughter: The Girl Who Met Geronimo

By: Susan L. Krueger with Reba Wells Grandrud
Publisher: Five Star Publications
Publication Date: March 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58985-197-9
Reviewed by: Mary Lignor
Review Date: May 21, 2011

The story begins with Addie and her family going from Texas to Arizona and on to Oregon. Along the way her mother passes away from Smallpox, they escape a stagecoach robbery, and face many other deterents before the journey ends. Making it harder for young Addie is the fact that her father, John Slaughter, is not with the family when her mother dies as he is running a cattle drive. When he returns, John finds that his wife is gone and he is left with two children to raise. He remarries and the children love their new mother. She is a city girl however, and is not used to the spacious Arizona desert towns. However, John tells the children that their new mother will get tougher in time and fortunately, she did.

Addie meets Geronimo, Chief and medicine man of the Chiricahua Apaches, at her father's ranch. Apparently, he was a frequent guest at the ranch and had given her grandmother a hand-carved wooden spoon (there is a photograph of the spoon included in the book). Many of the local ranches lost live stock to Apache raiders but Addie's father didn't lose as many. It was said that the Indians respected him and did not want to take his cattle.

Eventually, Geronimo was brought from Mexico to Arizona to be sent on to a reservation in Florida. Upon hearing this Addie traveled to see him. Geronimo saw Addie in the crowd and recognized her. He gave her a bead necklace and bowed to her. Addie knew, even though he was a warrior, he would not hurt her. He certainly did not look like the killer/warrior that everyone had painted him to be.

The author has written this tale in the first person and speaks for Addie Slaughter, as if she were in the room with you. Addie was the daughter of John Horton Slaughter, who was a Texas Ranger and then, the Sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona. This story of Addie's life is based on stories told to Adeline Greene Parks, daughter of Addie Slaughter.

While promoted as "the girl who met Geronimo" this book was really about Addie and her family as tales of Geronimo were a bit sparse. Overall, however, it was an enjoyable, and educational, tale of a family and their exploits in the late 1800s. This book will definitely teach children that history is not boring. The author succeeds in making the story of Addie very interesting and children will be fascinated by the adventures that Addie and her family faced in the west during the age of Geronimo.

Quill says: This book is a very good teaching tool for the children of Arizona as well as the rest of the country and is part of The Arizona Centennial Project.