◊TRADE BOOKS◊

If You Lived with the Iroquois
by Ellen Levine

SYNOPSIS - Detailed, color paintings and question-and-answer text bring to life traditional ways, customs and everyday world of the Iroquois--one of the most powerful and influential nations of Native American.
 

If You Lived with the Sioux
by Ann McGovern

SYNOPSIS- The history of the Hopi (meaning 'wise and beautiful people') is explored through a series of questions and answers, such as 'Would you live in a teepee?' and 'What did girls have to learn?'

SYNOPSIS - The third title in a series about Native American people, this book reveals what it was like to grow up in a Cherokee family long ago. Full-color illustrations by a Cherokee artist complement facts about Cherokee games, language, dwellings, medicine, names, and more.

Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back
By Joseph Bruchac

SYNOPSIS - In Many Native American cultures it is believed that the thirteen scales on Turtle's shell stand for the thirteen cycles of the moon, each with its own named and a story that relates to the changing seasons. Storyteller and American Book Award recipient Joseph Bruchac and poet Jonathan London collaborate to reveal the beauty of the natural world around us, while Thomas Locker's spectacular oil paintings honor both Native American legends and the varied American landscape.
Marks on Turtle's shell stand for the 13 cycles of the moon, each with its own name and a story that relates to the changing seasons. Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London collaborate to reveal the beauty of the natural world around us, while Thomas Locker's illustrations honor both Native American legends and the varied American landscape.

SYNOPSIS - This Navajo tale acknowledges the common human feeling that there IS a message in the stars--the laws of a clear and orderly universe--if it could be read. It absolves humans of guilt (Coyote did it) and provides a First Woman who is a strong, positive, and beneficent figure. The concise and graceful text is matched with illustrations in a primitive but dramatic vein, marked by simplified shapes, saturated matte colors, and desert-stark composition. The claret-sandstone earth and deep lapis sky, meeting at a curved horizon, dominate most pages; the white of eyes and starlight punctuate the design. This handsome book might well fit into a myth or Native American collection, but it can stand on its own timely and attractive merits as well.
 

The Legend of the Paintbrush
by Tomie DePaola

SYNOPSIS - In this companion to The Legend of the Bluebonnet, Little Gopher is smaller than the rest of the children in his tribe and can't keep up with those who ride, run, wrestle or shoot with bows and arrows. But, he has a talent of his own he is an artist. When he grows older, a Dream-Vision comes to him: a young Indian maiden and her grandfather tell him that he will paint pictures of the great warriors with colors as pure as the evening sky. Little Gopher's paintings never satisfy him because the colors are dull and dark, but he keeps trying. In the night, a voice tells him how to find paint-filled brushes; Little Gopher locates them, and they become brilliantly colored flowers known as Indian Paintbrush. This tale is related with deceptive simplicity by dePaola; he enhances the plainness of the story with his primitive illustrations, and, like Little Gopher, he finds inspiration in the colors of the sunset.

The Legend of the Bluebonnet
by Tomie De Paola

SYNOPSIS - Thick clusters of vivid blue flowers, which resemble old-fashioned sunbonnets, cover the Texas hills in the springtime every year. These lovely wild flowers, known by the name of bluebonnet, are the state flower of Texas, This favorite legend based on Comanche Indian lore, tell the story of how the bluebonnet came to be.

Annie and the Old One 
by Miska Miles

SYNOPSIS - A Navajo girl unravels a day's weaving on a rug whose completion, she believes, will mean the death of her grandmother.

The First Strawberries 
by Joseph Bruchac

SYNOPSIS - This legend explains the origins of strawberries, grown by the sun to help the first man and woman patch a quarrel. "Spare text, an uncomplicated story line and gentle illustrations keep this quiet but resonant tale accessible to even the youngest child," said PW

The Earth Under Sky Bears Feet 
by Joseph Bruchac

SYNOPSIS - Thirteen poems about stars, spirits, and the land, based on the legends of 13 different Native American Tribes. The reteller of these legends is of Abenaki heritage, and his poems are illustrated with oil paintings.

SYNOPSIS - This story of how the Rainbow Crow lost his sweet voice and brilliant colors by bringing the gift of fire to the other woodland animals is "a Native American legend that will be a fine read-aloud because of the smooth text and songs with repetitive chants. The illustrations, done in a primitive style, create a true sense of the Pennsylvania Lenape Indians and their winters."--School Library Journal

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale 
by Gerald McDermot

SYNOPSIS - With vibrant colors and bold geometric forms, Gerald
McDermott brilliantly captures the stylization of Pueblo
art in this Caldecott Award-winning retelling of an ancient
legend. A young boy searches for his father, but before he
can claim his heritage he must first prove his worthiness
by passing through the four ceremonial chambers: the kiva
of lions, the kiva of snakes, the kiva of bees, and the kiva
of lightning. Striking in its simplicity and grace, ARROW TO
THE SUN evokes the Native American reverence for the
source of all life - the Solar Fire.

Star Boy
by Paul Goble

SYNOPSIS - Star boy was the son of Morning Star and an earthly bride.  He was banished from the Sky World for his mother's disobedience and bore a mysterious scar on his face, the symbol of the Sun's disapproval.  As Star Boy grew, he came to love the chief's daughter, and it was she who helped him find the courage to journey to the Sky World and make peace with the Sun.  The Sun not only lifted the scar but sent Star Boy back to the world with the sacred knowledge of the Sun Dance, a ceremony of thanks for the Creator's blessing.

SYNOPSIS - Retellings of ten traditional Native American legends about natural landscapes and sacred places such as the Great Smoky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls. Color paintings accompany the text which stresses the spiritual power of the earth.

   

CLICK PICTURE FOR TOP OF PAGE

Lori Bruce
brucel@kinnelon.org
Last Updated Wednesday, October 17, 2007