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WTM-Partridge's and Other Things
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 13:41:00 -600
Robin, I love your comments spurred from Ginny's thoughts on Mrs. Partridge and "partridge in a pear tree"!
Robin's and other's comments on Sharon Creech's background, and on K.T.'s question as to whether we would include WTM as part of a multicultural bibliography, have made me think how much this book really is an American odyssey. Our country struggles for identity much in the same way Sal does - comprised of different cultures, we struggle to balance what we know of our past both as individuals and as a nation - what do we like, what do we want to hang on to, who do we want to be? None of it can change who we are at the moment, but the information feeds us in our quest for belonging and a future.
When I first started reading the book, I was a bit concerned: was this going to be another "getting in touch with the Native Spirit" venture (Robert Bly for the under set?). But I so much appreciated Sal's experience: she has a link to American Indian ancestry that is neither exploited nor ignored. It gives her a centering point because it is another way in which she remains firmly tied to her mother. At the same time, it is a point of confusion:
"why don't they just make up their minds?" she says regarding all the changes in nomenclature.
Would I put WTM on a bibliography of multicultural literature? I'm not sure. My first instinct is to say no, because it is not specifically about American Indian experience. At the same time, how is that experience defined? Certainly there are many individuals who are American Indian or part American Indian but whose cultural ties have been broken over time. Does the fact that they are not identified with the culture make them less Native American? I don't have the answer to that, and because I'm not Native American I don't consider it my place to define what it means to be part of that culture (which is certainly not a single culture anyway).
In her Newbery speech, Sharon Creech noted that in her family there was a family story which said there was American Indian in their background. This fueled her imagination in many ways as a child, and she brought some of this to the writing of WTM. In fact, if I remember correctly, the connection that Sal and her mother have to their American Indian background is much the same - family story passed along. Like so many family's, however, much has been lost to them through the generations, including the correct name of the nation from which they believe they descended: Seneca.
So Sal's experience is again, to me, more reflective of American experience as a whole, and while this certainly does not exclude American Indian experience, I am hesitant to call it a novel about American Indians. It is, however, a novel about being American, I think (but so much more!).
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St. Madison, WI 53706 schlies at macc.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 15 Jul 1995 02:41:00 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 15 Jul 1995 13:41:00 -600
Robin, I love your comments spurred from Ginny's thoughts on Mrs. Partridge and "partridge in a pear tree"!
Robin's and other's comments on Sharon Creech's background, and on K.T.'s question as to whether we would include WTM as part of a multicultural bibliography, have made me think how much this book really is an American odyssey. Our country struggles for identity much in the same way Sal does - comprised of different cultures, we struggle to balance what we know of our past both as individuals and as a nation - what do we like, what do we want to hang on to, who do we want to be? None of it can change who we are at the moment, but the information feeds us in our quest for belonging and a future.
When I first started reading the book, I was a bit concerned: was this going to be another "getting in touch with the Native Spirit" venture (Robert Bly for the under set?). But I so much appreciated Sal's experience: she has a link to American Indian ancestry that is neither exploited nor ignored. It gives her a centering point because it is another way in which she remains firmly tied to her mother. At the same time, it is a point of confusion:
"why don't they just make up their minds?" she says regarding all the changes in nomenclature.
Would I put WTM on a bibliography of multicultural literature? I'm not sure. My first instinct is to say no, because it is not specifically about American Indian experience. At the same time, how is that experience defined? Certainly there are many individuals who are American Indian or part American Indian but whose cultural ties have been broken over time. Does the fact that they are not identified with the culture make them less Native American? I don't have the answer to that, and because I'm not Native American I don't consider it my place to define what it means to be part of that culture (which is certainly not a single culture anyway).
In her Newbery speech, Sharon Creech noted that in her family there was a family story which said there was American Indian in their background. This fueled her imagination in many ways as a child, and she brought some of this to the writing of WTM. In fact, if I remember correctly, the connection that Sal and her mother have to their American Indian background is much the same - family story passed along. Like so many family's, however, much has been lost to them through the generations, including the correct name of the nation from which they believe they descended: Seneca.
So Sal's experience is again, to me, more reflective of American experience as a whole, and while this certainly does not exclude American Indian experience, I am hesitant to call it a novel about American Indians. It is, however, a novel about being American, I think (but so much more!).
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St. Madison, WI 53706 schlies at macc.wisc.edu
Received on Sat 15 Jul 1995 02:41:00 PM CDT
