U. S. Thoroughbred

JOE PETE--Florence E. McClinchey-- Holt ($2.50).

Joe Pete was the first and only legitimate child of his mother Mabel, an Ojibway Indian girl of northern Michigan. Later he had a sister and two brothers. When Mabel's husband deserted her, she was glad that she would no longer be beaten, then wondered how she would support her baby. For a while she managed, by weaving baskets and selling them to summer tourists. Then she cooked for a logging camp. Then she took men. Joe Pete grew, watched what was going on loved his mother, took care of the other children, said nothing. When the Lithuanian Jaakkola came to the island, Mabel's degeneration became complete. Two of the children died, Mabel died, Joe Pete went away to school, learned how to help his Ojibway people, helpless before the white man's legal wiles.

Author McClinchey knows the Ojibways and likes them, lives part of every year on the island which is her novel's scene. Born in Sault Ste. Marie (the "Soo") she became a school teacher there, now teaches in the English Department of Central State Teachers College (summer session). Reserved, hard to get acquainted with, Author McClinchey feels natural in the woods, is an expert canoeist, and can handle a launch in a heavy sea. Joe Pete, her first novel, is the Christmas choice of the Book League of America.

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