Wait for Me, Watch for Me, Eula Bee

A sense of dramatic irony marks this exciting novel about a young boy who struggles to carry out the rescue of his four-year-old sister from the Comanches and then encounters resistance where he least expects it.

The only survivors of an Indian raid on their Texas farm, Lewallen and Eula Bee are taken captive. Kept apart in the village, Lewallen whistles his sister’s favorite song to remind her he is near. After a daring escape, he meets a former neighbor named Cabral, who has always been mistrusted by Lewallen’s family. However, because Cabral’s two children are also captives of the Comanches, they reluctantly set out together to ransom them and on the way find unexpected kinship. Despite setbacks and agonizing delays, Lewallen finally sets out on his dangerous mission and forces a confrontation with the Kiowa brave who killed his family—the same man Eula Bee now looks to for protection.

Patricia Beatty’s affecting novel of courage and determination is set against a realistic background of frontier life in the 1860s.


“A slightly offbeat, carefully tempered story of Indian captivity that pits 13-year-old Lewallen Collier against the Comanches for the allegiance of his little sister Eula Bee. Left unprotected when Pa and big brother Johnny join the Confederates, the two are captured in an Indian raid which also wipes out the rest of the family. Advised to “show bravery” by fellow-captive Tomas Cabral, his once-slighted ten-year-old “Mexican” neighbor, Lewallen stands up to a vicious Kiowa (whereas, apparently, no Comanche is all bad) and, for dauntlessly singing Eula Bee’s favorite song, wins the sobriquet Sings His War Song. Then, tipped off by Tomas, Lewallen escapes; but at the nearest Confederate fort he finds that only Tomas’ father, away when the raid occurred, is ready to act. And Mr. Cabral is suspect as a Comanchero, one who trades with Comanches. How, at Lewallen’s insistence, the two team up; Tomas and Mr. Cabral are wantonly killed in a Union attack on the Comanches (a deliberate balancing of wrongs); and Lewallen, latching onto Cabral’s Comanchero relatives, eventually frees Eula Bee—all this makes for a tense, twisting tale …”  KIRKUS REVIEW



“An excellent historical novel.” The Horn Book



“An exciting story of the Western frontier.” School Library Journal



“Tightly plotted and eventful.” Booklist