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Joseph Bruchac: autobiography
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 11:26:37 -0500
Eliza-- thanks for compiling the list of Joseph Bruchac books and inviting us to comment on any of his titles. In looking at the list, I am impressed with the breadth of Bruchac's writing, from picture books for young children to young adult novels, fiction, nonfiction, and traditional stories.
"Bowman's Store" is a substantive memoir for teens and adults. I think it stands as one of Bruchac's finest pieces of writing to date and certainly is one of the best among the author autobiographies we've seen a lot of as of late. Teachers who use the CCBC are always asking us for recommendations of Native literature for teens, and were thrilled to learn about "Bowman's Store." With this in mind, I was surprised and disappointed to hear that it had gone out of print a year after it had been published, before it had a chance to find its audience, and I am equally disappointed that it has not been issued in paperback, to make it fully accessible to teens and to teachers for classroom use. Thanks, Beverly, for letting us know how we can acquire it directly from Bruchac. I strongly advise anyone working with teens to seek out this book.
Just this year, Joseph Bruchac has published an autobiography for young readers (2nd-5th grade) called "Seeing the Circle" as part of the Meet the Author series published by Richard K. Owens. Many of you may be familiar with this series of 32-page books that use color photographs of the author at home and at work, accompanied by a brief first-person text. These are clearly formula biographies but Bruchac has been able to rise above the formula by taking an original approach. After he writes about what a typical day in his life is like, he goes on to discuss his childhood, using the design of a circle divided into four sections as a metaphor for his growth and development as a writer. The sections stand for: listening, observing, remembering and sharing.
About his childhood he writes: "What was I like when I was young? Well, I was the kind of kid none of the other kids liked. I was a little know-it-all with glasses. I was scared of being beaten up, and I was a tattletale. If you'd known me when I was a kid, I think you wouldn't have liked me. Adults sometimes imagine childhood is easy. I'd never want to be a child again. It's just plain awful to be a kid who's different. But the great thing about life is that you can grow and change." I think that this sense of vulnerability and emotional honesty are what characterize a lot of Bruchac's work.
Received on Tue 19 Oct 1999 11:26:37 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 11:26:37 -0500
Eliza-- thanks for compiling the list of Joseph Bruchac books and inviting us to comment on any of his titles. In looking at the list, I am impressed with the breadth of Bruchac's writing, from picture books for young children to young adult novels, fiction, nonfiction, and traditional stories.
"Bowman's Store" is a substantive memoir for teens and adults. I think it stands as one of Bruchac's finest pieces of writing to date and certainly is one of the best among the author autobiographies we've seen a lot of as of late. Teachers who use the CCBC are always asking us for recommendations of Native literature for teens, and were thrilled to learn about "Bowman's Store." With this in mind, I was surprised and disappointed to hear that it had gone out of print a year after it had been published, before it had a chance to find its audience, and I am equally disappointed that it has not been issued in paperback, to make it fully accessible to teens and to teachers for classroom use. Thanks, Beverly, for letting us know how we can acquire it directly from Bruchac. I strongly advise anyone working with teens to seek out this book.
Just this year, Joseph Bruchac has published an autobiography for young readers (2nd-5th grade) called "Seeing the Circle" as part of the Meet the Author series published by Richard K. Owens. Many of you may be familiar with this series of 32-page books that use color photographs of the author at home and at work, accompanied by a brief first-person text. These are clearly formula biographies but Bruchac has been able to rise above the formula by taking an original approach. After he writes about what a typical day in his life is like, he goes on to discuss his childhood, using the design of a circle divided into four sections as a metaphor for his growth and development as a writer. The sections stand for: listening, observing, remembering and sharing.
About his childhood he writes: "What was I like when I was young? Well, I was the kind of kid none of the other kids liked. I was a little know-it-all with glasses. I was scared of being beaten up, and I was a tattletale. If you'd known me when I was a kid, I think you wouldn't have liked me. Adults sometimes imagine childhood is easy. I'd never want to be a child again. It's just plain awful to be a kid who's different. But the great thing about life is that you can grow and change." I think that this sense of vulnerability and emotional honesty are what characterize a lot of Bruchac's work.
Received on Tue 19 Oct 1999 11:26:37 AM CDT
