Trouble at Fort La Pointe

This was an enjoyable & engaging book to read aloud to my son. Suzette's father had been a voyageur (part of the crew paddling between Montreal and the trading posts to deliver supplies and pick up furs), but last year he quit that job to be able to live year-round with his Ojibwe wife & children. Now he has to pay the company for cancelling his contract, so has been working hard to trap many furs over the winter. The local fort commander has announced a contest with a cash prize to the person bringing in the most furs. When the family's canoe is damaged on their journey from the mainland winter trapping lands to the summer garden lands near Fort LaPointe (Madeleine Island), Suzette wants to blame the father of the boy who teased her show more for her blue eyes/mixed blood. Then, when a pile of furs is stolen from the trading post & the contest is cancelled, she convinces a friend to help her investigate who did it in order to keep her father from having to return to Montreal.
This book naturally incorporates many details of daily life in the mid-1700's in northern WI. It also teaches a lesson in not teasing and acceptance of differences, and has a very determined, observant, and intelligent girl as heroine. Fortunately my son doesn't mind stories with different gender protagonists, as long as the story itself is interesting. show less

In the early 1700s, twelve-year-old Suzette, an Ojibwa-French girl, hopes that her father will win the fur-trapping contest so that he can quit being a voyageur and stay with his family year-round, but when he is accused of stealing, Suzette must use her knowledge of both French and Ojibwa ways to find the real thief.In the early 1700s, twelve-year-old Suzette, an Ojibwa-French girl, hopes that her father will win the fur-trapping contest, but when he is accused of stealing, Suzette must use her knowledge of both French and Ojibwa ways to find the real thief.

This book is available on CD. At first the reader is hard to listen to, but as the story goes on, the voice seems to fit with the story.