From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 09:56:55 -0400

Thanks, Cindy, for great insights into the making of Bowman's Store. In an autobiographical sketch for The Eighth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators (to be published by H. W. Wilson in March 2000), Joe Bruchac says that of all his books, Bowman's Store is the one that he is proudest to have written.

What struck me most about this autobiography was the seamless way in which he wove together three very distinct voices - the voice of the child he was, the voice of the man he has become, and the timeless voice of the storyteller. When he relates a native story or a dream from the unconscious (the italicized parts that Cindy referred to), and then connects it to the narrative of his growing years, the connection is never forced. There is no sense of a 'gimmick' in this device, but a very real organic flow from past to present and back again . . . what Joe refers to as the "circles" of our lives.

Many psychologists and scholars have written about the psychological underpinnings of folk tales (Bettleheim, etc.), but mostly the scholars have referred to European tales and often imbued them with (perhaps) more weighty meaning than is truly there. What Bruchac has done is to show us how powerfully these archetypal stories impinge on our growth issues by interweaving them throughout his own story. The connections are clear, but not belabored so the reader has a feeling of discovering them along with the author - which is always the best reading experience.

Connie Rockman Editor, The Eighth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators H. W. Wilson Co, 2000 connie.rock at snet.net
Received on Mon 25 Oct 1999 08:56:55 AM CDT