THANKU, POEMS OF GRATITUDE, by many authors--a review by Ashleigh, 13

I like poetry. I was attracted to this book because of the beautiful cover. The outline of a girl of Color blowing a dandelion that releases the names of the poets in rainbow colors. Yes, illustrator Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota/Mohegan/Muscokee Creek) did beautiful work.

This book contains a diversity of poems and poets, some of them Native. The first poem, "Giving Thanks," by Joseph Bruchac, is dedicated to the memory of Chief Jake Swamp, whose book GIVING THANKS, A NATIVE GOOD MORNING PRAYER, is in most of our homes and some of our schools. It's a Reading Rainbow book. Bruchac offer a shorter version that begins: "Thanksgiving is more/ that just one day, so a Mohawk elder/ said to me."

The back of the book includes part of the Bruchac poem--love that girl's hair!

Th@nksgiving is in the background of this book. The poems, edited by Miranda Paul, say thanku to things big and small without validating the anti-Indigenous US myth.

Carole Lindstrom (Anishinbe/Metis, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) does a "found poem," which we call a blackout poem, called "Drops of Gratitude." I like that you can put the fifteen words in a different order to change the meaning some.

Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek Nation) has a two page "chant, free verse" poem called "Stories for Dinner." This is a "feast day table" with turkey where the elders "say Grace and Talk Story." This story includes generations of a Native family--who were in boarding schools and wars and water protector protests. The old and new celebrate "faith, food, friend, and family."

Traci Sorell's (Cherokee Nation) "cinquain" poem, "College Degree," is just five lines. But it is an important modern celebration. It begins, "The first. First Diploma..."

This book as poems by non-Native authors that are also wonderful, especially "Blue Sky," by Naomi Shihab Nye. They are all worth savoring and sharing with family and friends, like a favorite dish.

You can see from these two pages, the diversity and warm, welcoming feelings! My little sister Vi, who is autistic, sat to listen to some of them read aloud. She loved Myles illustrations of a duck and cats. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Comments

I CAN MAKE THIS PROMISE, by Christine Day--a review by Ashleigh, 13

This is the kind of book you can't put down. But you don't want to read it all at once either--because then it will be over! It's a novel I related to personally, and I think many readers will enjoy it, young and old. The more I look at this cover by Michaela Goade --all the details--the more I love it! The Upper Skagit author, Christine Day, has a "Dear Reader" note at the beginning of the ARC that is very heartfelt. She talks about being a graduate student and going on a trip "to visit a Suquamish Elder, the Suquamish Museum, and the historic site of Old Man House." She remembers the exact date--January 21. 2017--because it was the same day as the Women's March. She talks about seeing "Instagram flooded with pictures from the protests," while she ate breakfast and listened to professors. pink hats This is kind of a perfect image of a

APPLE IN THE MIDDLE, by Dawn Quigley--Review by Alexis, Age 18

*Warning: There are spoilers because I discuss the book, but I don’t give away important plot points. There is also use of the n-word. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I was really drawn to the image on Dawn Quigley’s APPLE IN THE MIDDLE (AITM) before the book was even published (August 2018). The image of a contemporary Native teen, who is not ridiculously glamorous, but pretty and real (love those earrings!), got stuck in my mind immediately. I thought, ‘I want to know who this girl is,’ and why there’s a pink house in the background. I am happy to say that the book more than lived up to my expectations. It’s not just a well-written, enjoyable book I admired from a distance. In some ways, I feel I am that girl on the cover, fifteen-year old Apple Starkington. Even though the circumstances of our lives are very different. Like Apple, I have a White father and a Native mother. My mom is Florida Seminole, while Apple’s mother was Turtle Mountain Chippewa.

Welcome to Indigo's Bookshelf!

We are a group of Florida Natives--Miccosukee, Seminole, Black, Latinix, queer and disabled--from the ages 12-20, who are passionate about kidlit and yalit. We believe in the power of books to reflect, entertain and enrich our lives from the time we are young ones. We enjoy books in digital and bound copies, with texts and/or graphics. We have experienced the bitter disappointment and danger of widespread Native misrepresentation, theft, cruelty and lies in books for all young readers. This blog is dedicated to reviewing Native #ownvoices. To us, that means books written from an inside perspective by Native authors, with proper research, respect and authorization, first and foremost for young Native readers, but also to educate other young readers and their families. We join our elders in calling to replace harmful, stereotypical texts in libraries, schools and homes. This blog is named after our friend Indigo, a Q2S sixteen-year-old who took her own life in 2018 Her beauty

Indigo's Bookshelf: Voices of Native Youth

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