From: Melissa Gross <mgross>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 08:13:41 -0400

Hello all, I am forwarding the following for Cindy Kane the editor of Joseph Bruchac?s THE HEART OF A CHIEF and BOWMAN'S STORE. Melissa Gross

Cindy's post:

I edited both The Heart of a Chief and Bowman's Store while I was the executive editor at Dial Books for Young Readers. I'd been working with Joseph Bruchac since 1991, when I brought his manuscript for the picture book The First Strawberries (published in ?93) to Dial. We've worked together on many other books--two picture books (The Story of the Milky Way and The Great Ball Game), two novels (Children of the Longhouse and Eagle Song), a forthcoming picture book (How Chipmunk Got His Stripes, currently being illustrated by Jose Arugo and Ariane Dewey) and a collection of plays based on Native tales for children to perform (Pushing Up the Sky, which will come out from Dial next spring).

Having worked so closely with Joe for so long, I've come to know a great deal about his life and of course, as I edited Bowman's Store, his autobiography, I learned much more. I think reading Bowman's Store together with the contemporary novel Heart of a Chief would be extremely valuable if you are interested in knowing how much of the fictional story is based on Joe's own experiences. I definitely see the young Joe (Sonny) whom he describes so vividly in Bowman's Store--a too-smart, scared, likable kid whose mouth sometimes runs ahead of him--in Chris Nicola, the sixth-grade hero of HOAC.

If you read Bowman's Store you know that Joe's Native roots were never acknowledged by his family as he was growing up. It was only as he began to explore Native culture as a young man that he made the connections between things his grandfather had taught him and Grampa Jesse's hidden Abenaki ancestry. One of my favorite passages in the book tells how Joe heard a song played at a gathering of the Missisquoi Abenakis in Vermont and recognized it as a tune his grandfather had played on the fiddle for him over 30 years before. The book is filled with beautiful, circular connections of this sort. But I also see Joe's Bowman grandparents in the characters of Doda and Auntie, the grandfather and aunt with whom Chris lives in Heart of a Chief. Like Grampa and Grama Bowman, these characters aren't wealthy, haven't made a big splash in the world, but have devoted all their energy and love to building their family and community. In their own little world, they loom very large, providing a stable home for a vulnerable child and "giving back" to their community in important ways.

When Joe and I started talking about his writing a novel set on a contemporary Native American reservation, I wondered how he would handle the sensitive issues of casino gambling, alcoholism, and poverty without seeming to pinpoint a particular group. As he says in his author's note to HOAC, he spent years working with Indian children in writing and storytelling workshops on reservations all over the country. He certainly drew on firsthand experience in creating Chris Nicola's environment. However, he chose to create a fictional reservation as his setting. I thought that was a brilliant idea; it freed him to deal with the issues openly. I think Chris is my favorite character in all of Joe's fiction. You just know this kid so well, faults and all, and root for his transformation. I remember in editing the book, our biggest task was making the passage of time believable as Chris comes out from under his problems--the chip on his shoulder over being a reservation kid, his sorrow over his mother's death and his father's alcoholism--to emerge as a leader in school and the reservation community.

In editing Bowman's Store, our task was shaping the material. We had to find the chronological thread and to decide how to interweave the material that links Joe's present life--particularly his vast knowledge of Native culture and folklore--to his childhood. Once we'd decided what material would appear in the italicized passages that preface each chapter (and also appear at the end of some chapters) we were on our way. I always saw the book's ending as the place where the italicized passages and the autobiographical material finally met--that is, where the young man who doesn't know why he is drawn to Native culture begins to seek out Native elders who can teach him what he wants to know. This quest for knowledge led to his position today as one of our foremost authorities on Native culture and storytelling, but the book shows that he learned his Native viewpoint much, much earlier, from his grandfather.

When I was editing Bowman's Store, I wanted it to find a place in the literature of autobiography. I think it's a remarkable piece of writing and I know, from letters Joe has shared with me, that it touched many readers very deeply. It broke my heart when the book was remaindered so soon after publication--just one year after. It was one of the things that happened in my last year as a trade editor that, taken together, made it easier for me to decide to leave trade publishing when the opportunity arose to join Modern Curriculum Press. I just lost some of my joy in the business. I know the book is still available via Joe's son's website, and I know Eliza Dresang will talk about that here. I do wish it could be picked up by a reprinter, because I think it's an important book that touches on so many issues of vital importance to young adults--identity, racism, family, the transforming power of love.

Thanks for this opportunity to speak about the books. It's good to be a part of CCBC-Net again!

Cindy Kane
Received on Mon 25 Oct 1999 07:13:41 AM CDT