This moving collection of first-person narratives celebrates the individuality and variety of the Native American experience. Men and women representing many Native American groups speak about childhood and growing up—games and rites of passage, education and learning, tradition and change. This companion volume to Neil Philip’s acclaimed IN A SACRED MANNER I LIVE is touching and dramatic, easily accessible to young readers, who will identify with its celebration of universal childhood experiences. Introduction, indexes of speakers/writers and Indian nations, suggestions for further reading, source notes.
Neil Philip is a noted folklorist and anthologist who has written several books on Native American and multicultural themes for Clarion, including IN A SACRED MANNER I LIVE, which was named both a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in England.
Gr 4 Up-This enigmatic book presents the remembrances of 33 individuals from 22 different American Indian nations, ranging from anonymous men and women to such well-known figures as Black Elk and Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins. Though the accounts were collected from 30 texts published since the late 1800s, most of them were originally dictated to historians or ethnographers, so the tone is conversational and readable. The black-and-white historical photos were well selected to illuminate the topics discussed or at least the nation of the speaker, and a few portray the speakers themselves. The enigma is the intended audience. Without accompanying background information, these personal stories could only be used as a supplementary resource for students writing reports, but it is unlikely that even middle or high school students would seek out such material. There is no topical index to the stories; there is an index of speakers and another of the Indian nations represented, both of which would facilitate research focusing on specific people or tribes. In the hands of the right teacher, this could be an excellent source for read-aloud material to augment a study unit.-Sean George, St. Charles Parish Library, Luling, LA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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