From: cwilson2 at kent.edu <cwilson2>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:22:02 -0400

I finally got a chance to read Birchbark House (I usually don't have the books available until you guys have already finished discussing them) and could hardly wait to finish it. It was very absorbing, I thought. The only thing I didn't like was the sprinkling of Ojibwa words throughout because it slowed things down.
    About children's responses, I remember thinking when my daughter was little that she wouldn't like the Little House series because it was so detailed (The book begins with the pig butchering account!) and because it was about the past (She loved space, fantasy, and adventure.); but I was wrong. That book pulled her in right from the beginning, so much so that by the third book or so, she would no longer wait for me to read it to her at night; she read ahead herself! I think children will feel the same way about The Birchbark House. I hate to think of it being extended to a series because it will become so terribly, terribly painful. As it is, the story is just a beautiful slice of life.
    Thanks for suggesting the book---?ssie Wilson
Received on Wed 13 Oct 1999 10:22:02 AM CDT