The Birchbark House

by Erdrich, Louise

• ISBN13: 9780786814541
• ISBN10: 0786814543
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-06-03
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

Nineteenth-century American pioneer life was introduced to thousands of young readers by Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books. With The Birchbark House, award-winning author Louise Erdrich's first novel for young readers, this same slice of history is seen through the eyes of the spirited, 7-year-old Ojibwa girl Omakayas, or Little Frog, so named because her first step was a hop. The sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic on Spirit Island, Omakayas, then only a baby girl, was rescued by a fearless woman named Tallow and welcomed into an Ojibwa family on Lake Superior's Madeline Island, the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker. We follow Omakayas and her adopted family through a cycle of four seasons in 1847, including the winter, when a historically documented outbreak of smallpox overtook the island. Readers will be riveted by the daily life of this Native American family, in which tanning moose hides, picking berries, and scaring crows from the cornfield are as commonplace as encounters with bear cubs and fireside ghost stories. Erdrich--a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa--spoke to Ojibwa elders about the spirit and significance of Madeline Island, read letters from travelers, and even spent time with her own children on the island, observing their reactions to woods, stones, crayfish, bear, and deer. The author's softly hewn pencil drawings infuse life and authenticity to her poetic, exquisitely wrought narrative. Omakayas is an intense, strong, likable character to whom young readers will fully relate--from her mixed emotions about her siblings, to her discovery of her unique talents, to her devotion to her pet crow Andeg, to her budding understanding of death, life, and her role in the natural world. We look forward to reading more about this brave, intuitive girl--and wholeheartedly welcome Erdrich's future series to the canon of children's classics. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

Author Biography

Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwa, was inspired to write The Birchbark House while she and her mother, Rita Gourneau Erdrich, were researching their own family history. She is the author of many critically acclaimed and best-selling books for adults, including Love Medicine, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, and most recently Tales of Burning Love and The Antelope Wife. She has also written a picture book, Grandmother's Pigeon. The Birchbark House is her first novel for young readers, and the first book she has illustrated. Louise Erdrich lives with her daughters in Minnesota. She is pictured here with her daughter Pallas's hand-raised crow, Mab, who has since returned to the wild.

Table of Contents

The Girl from Spirit Island	p. 1
Neebin (Summer)
The Birchbark House	p. 5
Old Tallow	p. 19
The Return	p. 33
Andeg	p. 51
Deydey's Ghost Story	p. 61
Dagwaging (Fall)
Fishtail's Pipe	p. 73
Pinch	p. 82
The Move	p. 99
First Snow	p. 107
Biboon (Winter)
The Blue Ferns	p. 121
Grandma's Story: Fishing the Dark Side of the Lake	p. 134
The Visitor	p. 140
Hunger	p. 162
Nanabozho and Muskrat Make An Earth	p. 172
Zeegwun (Spring)
Maple Sugar Time	p. 189
One Horn's Protection	p. 216
Full Circle	p. 221
Note on the Ojibwa language	p. 240
Glossary and pronounciation guide of Ojibwa terms	p. 241
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.