Bibliography
Bruchac, Joseph. 1995. The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet: Native American Poems of the Land. Illus. Locker, Thomas. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0-59013153-2
Plot summary
A young Iroquois girl is afraid of the approaching night and wants to go into the lodge. Her grandmother tells her if they go in they will not get to see Sky Bear. The girl is intrigued and her grandmother tells her stories about what Sky Bear sees and hears during the night. There are twelve poems from various tribes about Sky Bear and what she sees on Earth throughout the night.
Critical analysis
Bruchac has written beautiful collection of poems about Sky Bear and the things she sees on Earth during the night. The poems were inspired by Native American songs and stories about the earth, the night and the stars. Sky Bear is a constellation of stars commonly known as the Big Dipper. The oil paintings by Locke complement the poetry well depicting landscapes, animals, stars, and the people within the poems. Sky Bear sees many interesting things during the night: fireflies, a flute player, the Northern Lights, other stars in the sky, mice, piñon gatherers, caribou, a wolf, spirit dancers and the dawn.
The poems were inspired by twelve different tribal groups of North America. The twelve tribes represented are: Mohawk, Anishinabe, Pima, Missisquoi, Winnebago, Cochiti Pueblo, Lenape, Chumash, Inuit, Lakota, Navajo, and Pawnee. In the Author’s Note, Bruchac writes “I wanted to remind readers that, as Native children have always been taught, there can be as much to see in the living night as in the more familiar light of day.” Several of the poems have some Native American language sprinkled within but there is no glossary presented to translate the words. A reference is provided on the last page that lists the stories, poems and songs that Bruchac’s poetry is based upon. Bruchac is of Abenaki heritage.
That bear was Sky Bear,
running on through the stars.
Look up now
and you will see her,
Circling the sky.
When I look up at the night sky I will no longer see the Big Dipper, instead I will see Sky Bear and imagine all the things she sees on Earth as she crosses the night sky.
Review excerpts
School Library Journal v. 41 (November 1995) p. 87
A companion to Bruchac's Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back (1992). . . . Bruchac has once again compiled a thoughtful collection that eloquently bears out the theme of unity among all creatures. The selections display a wide range of emotions. Some are pensive meditation; others resound with hopeful energy. 'Mouse's Bragging Song,' a whimsical delight, is the arrogant boast of a little creature who thinks he alone can touch the sky. Locker's luminous oil paintings add detail and depth." Taniguchi, Marilyn, reviewer
The Horn Book v. 72 (January/February 1996) p. 85
"From the Mohawk and Missisquoi peoples of the Northeastern United States to the Pima, Cochiti Pueblo, and Navajo peoples of the Southwest to the Subarctic Inuit, these pieces reflect an awe and appreciation for the natural world. Locker's deeply hued paintings burst with the beauty of night across North America as his varied palette easily captures the Lenape's dark eastern woodland sky as well as the vast horizon of the Great Plains. The poems contain many images that will capture children's imaginations. . . . {They} provide an imaginative introduction to American Indian folklore and offer teachers a fruitful point of departure for classroom discussion. - Fader, Ellen, reviewer
Connections
This is the companion book to Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back: A Native American Year of Moons, which is about a grandfather telling his grandson about the thirteen moons of the year.
Bruchac, Joseph. 1992. Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back: A Native American Year of Moons. Illus. Locker, Thomas. New York: Scholastic Inc. ISBN 0-590-99508-1
picture book
Bibliography
Tingle, Tim. 2006. Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom. Ill. By Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 9870938317777.
Plot Summary
The Bok Chitto River was the boundary between the Choctaws and plantation owners. If a slave was able to cross the river, the slave was free. Martha Tom, a young Choctaw girl, crossed the river in search of blackberries and stumbled onto a forbidden slave church. The preacher sent his son, Little Mo to help guide her back to the river. A friendship developed between the two and over several years Martha Tom crossed the river to visit the church and her friends. Then one day Little Mo’s mother was sold and their family was devastated. Little Mo suggested they attempt to cross the Bok Chitto to freedom. With the help of Martha Tom, her mother and several women, the family crossed the river safely to freedom.
Critical Analysis
“Crossing Bok Chitto” is truly a multicultural story. It is a tale about a friendship between a black boy and Choctaw girl and also about how some Choctaw women helped a family of black slaves cross a river to freedom. Tim Tingle is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and was inspired to write this tale after speaking with a tribal elder from Mississippi and learning the history of his own tribe and other tribes that helped “the runaway people of bondage.”
A page about the Choctaws today and a note on Choctaw storytelling is included at the end of the book. Tingle writes “The story is documented the Indian way, told and retold and then passed on by uncles and grandmothers. Crossing Bok Chitto, in this new format - of language and painting, this book way of telling - is for both the Indian and the non-Indian.” The illustrator, Bridges is of Cherokee ancestry. The illustrations authentically depict the setting and clothing of the slaves, Choctaws and plantation owners. The emotions of Little Mo and his family are heartbreaking portraits when his mother is sold. The Choctaw women are visions of angles when dressed in their white wedding attire and long flowing black hair.
The is a bit of the Choctaw language weaved within in the story. The first time Little Mo crosses the river with Martha Tom he observes a wedding taking place. The men sing an old wedding song in Choctaw. Martha Tom also sings a song she had learned at the slave church but in Choctaw as they helped Little Mo and his family cross the river to their freedom.
This is a wonderful tale about the power of friendship. It is also a bit of history that has been passed down in stories told by Indians about the how their people helped runaway slaves to their freedom.
Awards/Honors
Texas Bluebonnet Master Award List 2008-2009
American Indian Youth Literature Award, Best Picture Book, 2008
American Library Association, Notable Children’s Book, 2007
Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book
Once Upon a World Children’s ook Award, 2007 Honor Book
Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award
Oklahoma Book Award, Bet Children’s Book, 2007
Oklahoma Book Award, Best Illustrations, 2007
Paterson Prize for Books for Young People
Skipping Stones Honor Book
Texas Institute of Letters Best Children’s Book, 2006
Teddy Award, Texas Writers League, 2005
Review Excerpts
MultiCultural Review v. 15 no. 3 (Fall 2006) p. 94-5
"[This book], originally one of the stories in Tingle's excellent collection Walking the Choctaw Road, is now a picture book. . . . [It] is an awesome story of survival, generosity, courage, kindness, and love, enhanced by Bridges's luminous acrylic on watercolor board paintings on a subdued palette of mostly browns and greens. In an endnote, [the author] describes how this particular story came to be. Today, Choctaw families—as well as Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole—continue to tell the stories of how they aided the ‘runaway people of bondage.’- Slapin, Beverly
School Library Journal v. 52 no. 7 (July 2006) p. 88
Dramatic, quiet, and warming, this is a story of friendship across cultures in 1800s Mississippi. While searching for blackberries, Martha Tom, a young Choctaw, breaks her village's rules against crossing the Bok Chitto. She meets and becomes friends with the slaves on the plantation on the other side of the river, and later helps a family escape across it to freedom when they hear that the mother is to be sold. Tingle is a performing storyteller, and his text has the rhythm and grace of that oral tradition. It will be easily and effectively read aloud. The paintings are dark and solemn, and the artist has done a wonderful job of depicting all of the characters as individuals, with many of them looking out of the page right at readers. The layout is well designed for groups as the images are large and easily seen from a distance. There is a note on modern Choctaw culture, and one on the development of this particular work. This is a lovely story, beautifully illustrated, though the ending requires a somewhat large leap of the imagination. – Riedel, Cris
Connections
Other books by Tim Tingle
Tingle, Tim. 2010. Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey From Darkness into Light. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. ISBN 9781933693675.
Tingle, Tim. 2006. When Turtle Grew Feathers: A Tale from the Choctaw Nation. Atlanta, GA: August House. ISBN 9780874837773.
Tingle, Tim. Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red Peoples Memory. ISBN 0938317733
Students can research the Choctaw Nations of Oklahoma and Mississippi and learn about the history of the tribe and the present day culture of the people.
Websites
http://www.timtingle.com/
Jeanne Rorex Bridges
http://www.rorex-art.com/
novel
Bibliography
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2001. Rain is Not My Indian Name. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-688-17397-7
Plot summary
Cassidy Rain Berghoff is a fourteen year old, Native American girl of mixed blood who lives in a small town in Kansas. Her best friend, Galen is killed in an accident on New Year’s Eve. Six months later Rain slowly emerges from her depression and begins to reconnect with her family and community. Rain’s Aunt Georgia is running a camp for Native American teenagers in her town but Rain refuses to participate despite the urgings from her family. Rain has a passion for photography and takes up her hobby once again when her brother’s girlfriend asks her to take pictures for the town newspaper about the Indian Camp. As Galen's birthday approaches on the fourth of July, Rain starts to come to terms with the tragedies in her life and her hertiage.
Critical Analysis
This is a story about grief and healing. It is also about a young girl embracing her heritage and what it means to her. The beginning of each chapter starts with a Rain’s journal, where we get a glimpse into her past and innermost thoughts about the people in her life and her heritage.
Six months after the death of her best friend Rain slowly begins to emerge from her depression. She unwittingly becomes part of a political battle about funding for a Native American Youth Camp her Aunt Georgia is coordinating. Rain is not ready for it, she is still grieving, plus she thinks it sounds like “the kind of thing where a bunch of probably suburban, probably rich, probably white kid, tromped around a woodsy park, calling themselves, “princesses”, “braves’ or “guides.” Her brother's girlfriend, Natalie is the editor of the town newspaper and hires Rain to take photos of the Indian Camp for the newspaper.
Rain starts to think about her heritage as she observes the Indian Camp behind the lens of her camera. “Rain is not my Indian name, not the way people think of Indian names. But I am Indian and it is the name my parents gave me” she wrote in her journal one day. Rain is of mixed blood ancestry. She is Muscogee Creek-Cherokee and Scots-Irish on her mother's side and Irish-German-Ojibway on her dad’s side. She thinks about the sterotypes of Indians she has seen at school and the questions she gets about her own lineage. She thinks about the people in her community and their cultures. The story has a mix of characters from other tribes and cultures: Queenie, a black girl whose great grandfather was Seminole, the Flash, who is Jewish and Galen, his mother and Natalie who are white.
While Indian camp is going on Rain is also thinking about her best friend Galen who died on New Year' Eve and her mom who died when she was 8 years old. Rain finally makes peace with their passing and honors her mother by visiting her grave and creates a website in Galen's memory.
Cynthia Leithch Smith is of mixed blood like her protagonist. Her tribal affiliation is Muscogee (Creek) Nation and she is biracial of Euro-American heritage. This was her first novel.
Awards/honors
2001 Writers of the Year in Children's Prose by Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award
Review excerpts
MultiCultural Review v. 10 no. 3 (September 2001) p. 115-16
"Smith writes about a mixed-blood 14-year-old coming to terms with the sudden death of her mother and, more recently, of her best friend, her might-have-been boyfriend. Told in the first person, each chapter begins with a refreshingly nonlinear journal entry. In both journal and narrative, we see a smart teenager with an acerbic wit." - Slapin, Beverly, reviewer
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books v. 55 no. 1 (September 2001) p. 35-6
"Unfortunately, Rain's story does not come into focus quickly or clearly enough. Two short chapters introduce and then kill off Rain's best friend/boyfriend; after that, the complexities of the local backstory make it difficult for the reader to put together the big picture, in which issues of friendship and family are explored through fragmented views of interrelated plots. Still, Rain's observations are appealingly wry, and readers who stay with her until these themes are fully developed will find food for thought in this exploration of cultural identity."
Connections
Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog - Cynsations
and website www.cynthialeitichsmith.com
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