Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman

By Tanya Landman (author)

"Authentic, grim, historical exploration of the concept of freedom and the lengths to which people will go to to to be free"

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Winner of the 2015 CILIP Carnegie Medal

What does freedom really mean? Tanya Landman pushes back against all kinds of prejudice in this action-packed, emotionally rich and vividly told story about one girl’s struggle to find out. When Charley is freed from slavery at the end of the Civil War between the Yankees and the Confederates she imagines a new world of unlimited opportunities.

Instead, she finds a life that is more dangerous than ever before. Her only way to survive is to disguise herself as a boy and join the army. But the army, like everywhere else, is riddled with prejudice and danger. It is only when Charley is sent to fight against the Apache Indians, another much discriminated against group, that she begins to learn what is could mean to be free.

For more books on this theme head over to our sister site, LoveReading4Schools topic list - T he Slave Trade

What kind of a girl steals the clothes from a dead man's back and runs off to join the army? A desperate one. That's who. At the end of the American Civil War, Charley - a young African-American slave from the deep south - is ostensibly freed. But then her adopted mother is raped and lynched at the hands of a mob and Charley is left alone.

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In a terrifyingly lawless land, where the colour of a person's skin can bring violent death, Charley disguises herself as a man and joins the army. Soon she's being sent to the prairies to fight a whole new war against the savage Indians . Trapped in a world of injustice and inequality, it's only when Charley is posted to Apache territory that she begins to learn what it is to be truly free.

Tanya writes with great authority on this part of US history, her novel Apache was nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal.

“Apache is a magnificent account of life in a doomed tribe …a disturbing but exhilarating experience.” The Independent

Tanya Landman is renowned for her prize-winning novels including the beautifully “deft and dark”, Carnegie Medal winning Buffalo Soldier . In 2019 she won the Scottish Teenage Book Prize for her critically acclaimed novella One Shot .

Tanya says that she loves how writing allows her to daydream – something she was always in trouble for at school!