Indigo's Bookshelf: Voices of Native Youth

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. ...

Traci Sorell wrote one of our favorite picture books, WE ARE GRATEFUL, Otsaliheliga . She also finished Charlene Willing McManis' novel INDIAN NO MORE . Ms. Traci is a Cherokee Nation citizen, and she writes great books for kids! Her newest book is another picture book based on Cherokee history and traditions: AT THE MOUNTAIN'S BASE. The book has a simple text like a poem. It starts with: At the mountain's base/ grows a hickory tree/ Beneath this sits a cabin. Then it turns to: On that stove/ simmers savory goodness in well-worn pans/ By those pans sits a grandma, weaving At this point we see the grandma hand-weaving with her granddaughter standing beside her looking on. From the beginning of the book, there are many colored strands of fiber around the pictures, each one connected to the next. This is a very beautiful technique by Tongva/Scots-Gaelic illustrator Alvitre. The weaving connects not just the text and images, but also the Chero...

INDIAN NO MORE, by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorell is one of the best books I've ever read. Thank you to Tu Books and Stacy L. Whitman for sending @ofglades the uncorrected proof to review. At first, I was sorry it wasn't an audio book, because it is sometimes easier for me to listen to books. But just after reading the first chapter, "The Walking Dead"--SNAP!, the voice of ten year-old Regina Petit was in my head. It stayed there till the last page, and it's still talking to me now. Regina says, "My family was Umpqua. I was Umpqua. That's just how it was." But it gets messy fast. She has always lived on the Grand Ronde reservation, thirty miles from Salem, Oregon, but Congress passes a bill that says that the Umpqua (and other tribes in Oregon) have been terminated. Regina's grandmother Chich tells her, "The President has just signed the bill from Congress saying that we're no longer Indian." But before that we ...

We have read this book many times since it was published in October 2018. It is a feast for the heart, eyes, voice and mind. Since we think it is a major work, that has already been awarded (and should receive further awards) and many of us have read and discussed it, we decided to do a group review. Alexis : I heard a lot about this book before it was released. I was instantly intrigued by the concept of it and by the cover. The bright, distinctive artwork, the font of the title and, of course, the title in Cherokee and also in the Cherokee syllabary. I read it very quickly the first time. Probably because I was filled with expectation. I immediately thought it was beautiful and a much fuller book, with more information, than I had expected. I also thought the words and illustrations were a perfect combination. Eduardo . You know I'm a wannabe filmmaker, so, yeah, I immediately recognized that the book was the whole package. Author and illustrator worked perfectly together...